Dragon Death God
by Raiden891
Summary: Story is on indefinite Hiatus, not sure when I'll bring it back.
1. Chapter 1: A Shattered Normalcy

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Highschool DxD. I only own my OC**

 **Edited as of 6/23/16**

* * *

The sun had just begun rising over the small populated area of Karakura town, a city just outside the enormous city of Tokyo. The first few rays of sun began streaming through the curtains of the room of a young man. The room was small, only large enough for a few individuals to sit comfortably; it also seemed rather bare, having only a carpet in the center, a bed large enough to house two individuals, a window with the curtains closed, a small desk obviously used for homework, and a closet that sat across from the bed, with the owner of the room sound asleep.

The sunlight peered through the cracks of the drawn curtains. Slowly illuminating the features of the one who slept in the bed, he was a young man, perhaps no older than 15, despite this, his jaw was incredibly chiseled, the strain of the shirt he wore as his chest rose and fell with every breath he took showed that he was well built. His black hair fell about him messily, reaching the middle of his back in terms of length, the occasional red streak running through his locks.

The young man began to wake as the rays of sun hit his face, a slight grimace of discomfort at the foreign heat and light atop the skin that covered his eyes. After the length of about a few seconds, the young man sat up and opened his eyelids, revealing a pair of ocean blue orbs that sharply took in every detail about him, showing no signs of fatigue or the standard drowsiness that came from waking up from slumber. His long bangs fell naturally over his left eye.

Sitting up, the young man pulled back the curtains and winced, the sun was relatively high and shined brightly onto his lightly tanned face. Then his ears twitched as he picked up a near silent sound, it was akin to a bear, rapidly thumping his way up the stairs. He sighed before opening the window and lying back down, already knowing what the sound meant.

"GOOD MOOORRRNING RYUUUUU!" His door suddenly flew open as an old man jumped into the room with a leg outstretched, prepared to kick the young man into oblivion.

The young man merely raised his arm and blocked the kick before grabbing the older man's ankle and throwing him out of the open window, with a small smirk on his face to boot.

"My son! What on earth was that for?!" the elder man called from his position on the sidewalk.

The young man stuck his head out of the window and stared down at his father with a deadpan expression. "You annoy me." And with that, he retreated back into his room, closed his window and smirked at the noise of his father trying to get into the house.

Standing from his seated position on the bed, Ryu Kurosaki walked to the dresser leaning on the wall and opened a few drawers. Grabbing a black T-shirt, and grey jacket, along with a pair of grey dress pants; he exited his room to change into his school clothing.

" _Well, seems to be the start of a normal day."_

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu sighed as his relatively pleasant walk to school was interrupted. It was another dumb delinquent, telling him off for having different colored hair and "ripping off his style". Honestly? He could care less about "style" this was his natural hair color, and if the delinquent had a problem with that then he should go and figure it out himself.

"Oi Kurosaki!" The words of said delinquent jarred Ryu from his thoughts. "You listenin'? 'Cause if you ain't then I'll be sure to give you a knuckle sandwich during lunch break!"

Ryu sighed yet again; he seemed to be doing that a lot today. The "bully" wasn't even worth his time between the way he was talking and the poor threat that he made towards him.

"Look… whatever your name is. Your non-stop ranting about how I am 'ripping off your style' is truly starting to annoy me. Perhaps the reason why you haven't learnt that this is my natural hair color is due to the size of your small brain."

"What did you say?!"

"Oh, It seems as though your hearing is as bad as your vocabulary. It seems as though my hypothesis was indeed correct. "

"Why you…!"

The bully pulled out a pair of brass knuckles and stomped up to Ryu, fist cocked back and prepared to smash the kid's face in. What he didn't expect was said Kurosaki catching and twisting his fist at an odd angle, causing an audible snap to be heard.

The bully cried out in pain as he held his wrist, Ryu didn't even blink at the sight of the bully writhing on the ground and clutching his wrist in obvious pain. Glancing at his watch, his eyes widened, if he didn't hurry he would be late to school!

Sending a scowl towards the bully on the ground that took up valuable time that he could've used walking to school, he began sprinting off in the direction of Karakura high.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu panted heavily as he leaned on the doorway of the classroom, barely managing to get into the classroom as the bell rang and Ochi-sensei walked in.

Ryu already tuned out her lecture and began focusing outside. Then he tried to remember back, back during that time when he was found by a man and woman claiming to be his father and mother. Ryu scowled as he once again realized that he couldn't remember anything before that. Isshin had told him that he had meningitis when he was six and it wiped his memory of his childhood.

Ryu sighed once more as he tried again, yielding the same results; anything beyond being found by Isshin was a blur. Moving forward, Ryu thought back to something that he almost always thought about.

The death of his mother.

Isshin said that she had died in an accident by the river, however Ryu knew that answer was a load of bullshit. Masaki was killed by something, what she was killed by, he didn't know, but he was certain that Masaki didn't die on accident. _Something_ had been there, and he was going to find that thing and make it pay, one way, or another.

Suddenly jolted from his thoughts by the teacher, Ryu discovered that he'd been called on to answer a math equation.

 **-XXXX-**

"Oi! Big Yama!" One of the thug skaters yelled.

Ryu could care less about their names; they were really just a waste of his memory to remember.

"Hey punk" One of the thugs was now in his face, Ryu scowled before rubbing the top of his head in exasperation.

"I'm talking to you! Think you can just run over big Yama like that? We'll teach you what happens when you mess with us!"

Ryu sighed yet again that day as he lashed out with a kick, the skater flopped to the earth with a yelp, instantly unconscious.

"Alright, question 1.." Ryu began slowly.

"What is that?" He calmly asked gesturing to a knocked over vase of flowers.

"You, answer"

The three skaters began shaking at his cold tone, almost like ice, cutting through the warmth of the evening sun.

"W-well it looks like a tribute to a kid who died here?"

The skater who answered ate a concrete sandwich; Ryu didn't even blink.

"Correct, now why is it on its side?"

The other two began shaking even harder as the left one stuttered out.

"W-we-we knocked it over?" His voice went a pitch higher towards the end.

The two were on the ground before anyone could blink. They raised their heads, only to lock eyes with a _very_ angry Ryu.

"Then I recommend you apologize, unless of course, you want the flowers to be for you?"

The skaters instantly jumped to their feet and ran away, screaming: "We're sorry!" behind them.

Ryu sighed, before turning around and straightening out the vase and what remained of the flowers inside them.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, I'll bring by some fresh flowers tomorrow." As he spoke, a young girl materialized in front of him, a small broken chain dangling from the center of her chest.

"Thank you, Onii-chan, now that they're gone I can finally rest in peace." The girl smiled gratefully.

Ryu merely nodded. "There's no need to thank me, this is the least that I can do after what you've been through."

Turning on his heel Ryu gave the girl a small wave as he walked in the direction of his home. When he was out of earshot of the young girl he groaned, his father was no doubt waiting to spring a trap at his arrival for some dumb excuse like"being late"

 **-XXXX-**

"I'm home!" Ryu ducked down after hearing those words and dodged a kick from his father.

"You're late! I won't have you disturbing the peace in this house by staying after cur-"

Isshin was cut off by a kick in the gut, courtesy of the one he was yelling at.

"I won't have you lecture me about 'disturbing peace' if you want to talk to me about that, then stop acting like a five year old."

With his piece said, Ryu turned towards the stairwell and began walking up into his room, he sighed as he lay down on his bed. The stress he was feeling lately was catching up to him, not only was there an increase of bullies who wanted a piece of him, but the number of ghosts had also increased. Not to mention his man-child of a father kept up with whatever act he was pulling.

Ryu sighed for what appeared to be the millionth time that day as he sat up to start on his homework.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu rubbed the sore spot on his stomach as he walked down the street, his father caught him by surprise for once and managed to land a kick into his stomach, the likes of which caused him to retaliate by kicking his father in a… less than pleasant area. Ryu smirked at the memory of seeing his father writhe on the ground in pain _"Serves you right, stupid oyaji."_

Ryu's head snapped upward suddenly, his visible eye glancing around and narrowing dangerously, he didn't know what was going on, but there was something wrong with this area, his instincts were yelling at him to get away from here.

Ryu's grip on his bag tightened as he continued walking, this time he was tense, prepared to strike out at whatever was watching him.

Then he got his answer, a black sickle-like claw began to tear through the concrete that made up the wall of the building he was walking next to.

The people around him panicked, no doubt due to the destruction that the unseen monster was bringing upon their city. Ryu's eye widened as he caught a glimpse of a large insectoid body and enormous scythe-like claws, a bone white mask adorned the creatures face as it unleashed an inhuman roar.

Then from the smoke of the monster's attack, the young girl that he had seen yesterday ran out. A panicked expression of pure terror was inscribed on her young face.

Ryu instantly ran towards the girl and supported her as they both ran away from the monster, said monster glanced their way and began to give chase, black claws gleaming as it began to smell an extra-tasty soul.

The girl suddenly tripped over her own feet and fell to the earth. Ryu instantly knelt to her side and tried to help her up. His blood ran cold however when he heard the inhuman shriek of the monstrosity as it loomed over his body.

Ryu turned and faced the beast just as a short figure, garbed in black leaped in front of him, in one fluid motion; the figure drew the sword and sliced open the mask of the beast. Blood gushed out of the wound, as the beast lay to the ground, dead.

The figure landed gracefully on their feet and sheathed their sword, upon closer inspection; Ryu noticed that the figure was a girl, A short girl with black hair and violet eyes.

Said girl turned and faced him for a brief second before turning back and walking away. Ryu said nothing, just staring at the back of the mysterious woman in both shock and confusion, how had she moved so gracefully? And how had she killed that monster with such ease?

Ryu looked back to the earth and noticed that the spirit he'd tried to help save had vanished, glancing around, he realized that no one had reacted to the behemoth's presence, stating that it must have been another gas leak.

Ryu hesitantly stood up and resumed his walk towards the place of his education, losing himself to his thoughts as he began to wonder whom that girl was.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu collapsed on his bed with a sigh, the entire day he was distracted trying to figure out who, or what, that monster was. The girl he had seen was obviously a ghost of some sort, probably just a little kid spirit, playing hero.

His thoughts were interrupted when the woman that was the source of all his thoughts entered the room, through his wall. She possessed all the grace of a cat as she stepped down onto his desk.

Ryu's eyes were wide, he knew she was a spirit, but to phase through his wall so effortlessly surprised him greatly. Now that he had a closer look, Ryu could tell that she was wearing some form of black kosode with similarly colored hakama. The sword that he had seen her wield was resting on her left hip, held in place by a white obi. Her black hair fell about her in a slightly messy fashion, her violet eyes regarding him for a split second before turning back to survey the room.

"H-hey!"

"It's close." The girl muttered, Ryu raised an eyebrow as she fell to the ground and rested a hand on the hilt of her weapon.

Ryu' surprised look fell into a scowl and he grunted before standing up and tapping the girl on her shoulder. This caused her to tense and turn around slowly, her gaze wide.

"You know, it's rude to ignore somebody, especially if you're a guest in their home." The girl didn't even react to his words as she kept regarding him with wide eyes.

"Y-you can see me?"

"Yes."

"You tapped my shoulder."

"Yes I did,"

She narrowed her eyes, "Hang on, you're that boy from earlier today."

The girl suddenly grabbed Ryu's face and began turning it from side to side. "Odd, I didn't sense anything within you earlier."

Ryu grabbed her wrist and scowled deeper. "Didn't your parents teach you about manners? If so then you really need work on them. Who are you anyway?"

The girl yanked her hand back with a scowl before answering, "I'm a Shinigami."

Ryu raised an eyebrow at that, before the girl sighed.

"You might want to take a seat, this is going to take a while to explain."

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu gave the girl sitting in front of him a long stare, regarding her face to see if she had lied at all during times of her explanation.

"So let me see if I understand… You're a spirit called a shinigami." Ryu was answered with a nod

"And you were sent here to exorcise fallen spirits called hollows while also sending human spirits which you call 'Pluses' to the 'Soul Society', which is the afterlife, via a ritual, called 'Konso.'"

Ryu was met with another firm nod, Ryu regarded her with another long stare, at first he had thought that it was all one big elaborate story to get a rise out of him, but this girl seemed to speak honestly throughout her entire explanation. However…

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that you're going to need some proof to back up your claim."

The girl raised an eyebrow, "Why would I need to do that? You can see spirits correct?"

Ryu nodded, "While it's true that I can see spirits, I have never heard of, or seen, any ghost claiming themselves to be a Shinigami."

The girl nodded in understanding before looking down in thought, then a realization seemed to settle into her gaze as she pointed an index finger towards the wall.

"Hado number four, Byakurai." The instant she uttered those words, a pale bolt of lightning sprang from her outstretched finger.

Ryu's eye widened as he stared at the small hole pierced into his wall, a small red ring of heat surrounded it, signifying that it was real.

"That was kido." The girl smirked, already answering Ryu's unasked question, "It's a spell that only Shinigami can perform."

Ryu cleared his throat before his gaze returned back to the woman sitting in front of him. "So, if you were sent here to exterminate these hollows, then what are you doing here?"

The girl looked at the ground at that, "Well, it seems like some sort of outside force is blocking my senses somehow. I don't know what it is, but it's preventing me from finding the hollow's exact location."

Ryu's ears twitched after the girl finished speaking, his head snapped in a random direction as he heard a very familiar inhuman roar.

"O-Onii-chan." Ryu's head snapped to his doorway as he caught sight of one of his two younger sisters, Yuzu. She had short brown hair stylized in a bob cut, a strawberry hairpin holding her bangs in place off the right side of her head, she was currently wearing a yellow dress with a pink apron over it, both of which were stained crimson with blood, her soft brown eyes were filled with panic as she caught sight of her brother.

Ryu reacted instantly and sprinted to her side, catching her just before she hit the ground.

"K-Karin-chan, she's in danger." Yuzu spoke weakly, "Please… Save her."

With those words, Yuzu lost consciousness as her brown gaze slid shut. Ryu's grip tightened on his sister as he slowly stood before sprinting downstairs, his body shaking with barely contained rage.

The instant Ryu hit the bottom of the stairwell; he caught sight of his other sister, in the grip of a large, green-skinned monster with a fishbone shaped mask.

Karin's eyes were closed as the monster began to squeeze her, her black hair shaking as she cried out in pain. Ryu's anger finally hit its limit as he grabbed the closest thing to him and charged, swinging a foldable chair at the enormous monster that had his younger sister it its grasp.

However, the Shinigami got there first, her sword drawn and sinking into the flesh of the monsters wrist, between the steel of the weapon and the force of Ryu's strike, the monster was forced to drop its prey.

Ryu caught his sister just before she hit the ground, the hollow retreating before it vanished from his sight. Ryu placed two fingers on the neck of his sister and was relieved to feel a pulse.

"Of course. It all fits."

Ryu looked up at hearing the voice of the girl, "What do you mean?"

"That hollow, the reason why I couldn't sense it was because of _your_ spiritual energy, it was blocking out my senses, it's also likely that your sister was attacked because it was attracted by your strong spiritual presence."

Ryu's blood ran cold as he stared down at his younger sister, she could've _died_ because of _him_?

Ryu set her on the ground gently before standing up and walking forward, glaring at the hollow that had just reappeared.

"What are you doing!?" The shinigami bellowed out. He ignored her, all that mattered right now were these next moments.

"Hey, you wanted me in the end right?" The hollow roared in response before lunging toward the prey that had offered itself to it.

Ryu's eyes widened as he saw the shinigami that he had met just a few minutes earlier jump in front of him and take the strike that meant for him, blood gushing out of the wound inflicted upon her by the beast she was meant to kill.

The shinigami sunk her sword into the mask and ripped a long cut along the edge. The hollow roared in response and reeled back, blood gushing from the cut on its head. Ryu's eyes widened as the shinigami sunk to the earth.

"You fool." She croaked out, pain lacing her words, "Even if you sacrificed yourself, this hollow still would've eaten the souls of your family. Hollow's hold no reason, only an unquenchable bloodlust for other souls."

The shinigami crawled up to a wall and leaned against it, "Do you wish to save your family?"

Ryu nodded firmly at her question, the shinigami smiled.

" _Then you must become a shinigami_. Run this zanpakuto through the center of your being and it will allow me to transfer my powers into you."

Ryu nodded before grabbing the sword and pointing it at the center of his chest. "I never did learn your name."

"It's Rukia, Kuchiki Rukia."

"Well met, my name is… Kurosaki Ryu."

With those words said, Ryu ran the sword through the center of his chest.

A bright blue flash obscured the two of them from vision. The hollow roared at the image.

Suddenly the hollow no longer felt its left arm, looking down, the beast realized that it was completely severed from its body. Looking further, it saw a head of red streaked black hair holding an enormous sword with a slightly bloodied edge.

" _My name is Kurosaki Ryu"_

The hollow roared and threw a punch only for the arm to meet the same fate as the other.

" _I can see ghosts"_

The hollow roared before throwing a kick with its stubby legs, however Ryu blocked the strike and with a mighty roar, he threw the hollow staggering back.

" _I don't remember anything of the first six years of my life."_

Ryu swung his sword down and sliced off the leg of the hollow, without its legs to keep balance, the hollow began to fall forward.

" _And…"_

Ryu lunged his sword upwards, piercing the mask of the beast, with its head sliced, the body of the monster began to fade away.

" _I'm a Shinigami."_

* * *

 **That's the end of the first chapter, this idea has been dancing on the edge of my mind for the longest time, I'm really excited to show my readers what I'm planning for the future.**

 **Anyway, this chapter was a bit more of an introduction for Ryu, as you can probably tell, Ryu's a bit more collected than Ichigo, speaking of the strawberry, don't worry he'll be in the story, just not in a way you'll expect**.

 **EDIT: So there wasn't a lot to change in this chapter, I added a few parts into conversations and passages that I felt were important to the story and I changed a bit of Ryu's interactions to make it a bit more realistic.**

 **As usual, please follow, favorite, review.**


	2. Chapter 2: The New Substitute

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC**

 **Edited as of 7/2/16**

Ryu glanced around, his visible eye wide, while he expected to wake up in his room to his father screaming his name, he instead awoke to an enormous natural landscape, the sun setting, painting the sky a wide variety of scarlets and oranges, in the distance, he could hear a waterfall, toward the west, he could see mountains showing themselves out of the ground, in the distance, he could see several islands, seemingly floating in the sky.

As for what he was standing on, it appeared to be the roof of some structure, it had clearly been standing for a long amount of time, the roof was cracked and worn.

Moving to the edge, Ryu glanced downward, revealing that he was standing on what appeared to be a ruined tower. Below him was a vast expanse of forestry. The grass and leaves waving slightly in the peaceful breeze, he could even see several animals wandering the ground, squirrels, birds, and even a bear were all searching the earth for something. What, he didn't know but they seemed rather persistent.

" **Beautiful, ain't it?"**

The hairs on the back of Ryu's neck stood up straight as he jumped to the side and rolled. He stood up straight as he turned around, seeing an enormous white blade withdrawing from the ground.

" **Hoh? That's good."** Ryu turned to the voice and his eyes widened; he was staring at an entirely white version of himself. The only difference being their clothing as he was wearing the outfit that Ryu himself wore when he gained that shinigami's power, it was just white in coloration with black lining. **"Looks like you can sense malicious intent."**

Ryu's visible eye shut tight as a blinding pain shot through his skull. Something deep within his mind was reacting to the words of the man in front of him as a voice that wasn't present spoke out.

" _You won't always be able to see the enemy coming. So when you can't you need to be able to sense them."_

" **Something wrong, partner?"** Ryu was jarred from his thoughts as the being began to walk towards him in a slow manner, the white blade that was swung at him resting lazily on his shoulder.

"' **Cause if you're just gonna stand there…"** The blade left the man's shoulder as it began to spin at high speeds. **"I'LL KILL YOU!"**

Ryu barely managed to sidestep another strike from the white blade as it began to spin in his direction. He managed to catch a glimpse of black cloth before he jumped to the side again, closely avoiding the blade as it spun back to its owner. The man continued to spin the weapon as its owner's face split into a grin of insanity.

However, said grin melted away when the owner of said weapon discovered that he could no longer spin it. Ryu looked and saw that the white blade was held to the roof of the tower by several glowing blue chains. The white being clicked its tongue out of annoyance before turning and staring at a dark-clothed figure behind them.

"Enough." The figure stepped forward to reveal that it was an old man wearing a long black overcoat that seemed to be made of darkness.

" **Coming to ruin my fun again old man?"** The white being spoke with boredom. **"You know that we're gonna have to do this eventually."**

"I acknowledge that." The old man spoke, "But that day will not be today. You will fight Ryu, but when he is ready."

The white being sighed before turning back to Ryu, **"Looks like we'll have to finish this some other time, partner."** His face split into a malicious grin as his golden eyes glinted. **"Until then… Don't die."**

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu's eyes opened to the sight of his ordinary bedroom ceiling, sitting up in bed, he looked around to see that he was back in his room. There weren't any strange floating islands, he wasn't in the middle of a large forest, and there was no strange white version of him attacking him and no strange clothed old man stopping him.

' _A dream?'_ He didn't know, everything just looked so real. But what did the white man mean when he said that he'd have to fight him. Not to mention the old man knew his name, and he'd think he would remember two people as strange as those. Then there was the feeling he got every time the white one attacked. The hairs on the back of his neck would always stand up; he could _feel_ where that sword was coming from, almost lik-.

"GOOD MOORRNIGGG RYUUU!"

Ryu was suddenly jolted from his thoughts as his father flew into his room through the door; Ryu reacted, stood up and punched his father in the throat. Isshin gagged and Ryu took that moment to throw him on the earth and stom his lights out.

Now that his father was unconscious Ryu walked over to his dresser and grabbed his uniform before exiting the room, leaving his father unconscious on the floor.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu paused as he walked down the stairwell; in the middle of his wall was a large gaping hole, covered only by several boards nailed into place.

"Good morning Onii-chan!" Ryu turned from the wall to see a completely unharmed Yuzu smiling brightly at him a ladle in one hand and a bowl of rice in the other.

"Morning Yu-Nii." Karin gave him a lazy wave before going back to her breakfast.

Ryu furrowed his eyebrows as he thought back to the previous night; both of his sisters were acting far too ordinary considering what they had seen, (felt in Yuzu's case).

"If you're wondering about the hole, it's because a truck crashed into our house in the middle of the night." Ryu looked up to see his father speaking to him from the stairwell. Ryu's eyebrow rose, as he remembered his father had a meeting with some medical friends last night and wasn't home.

However despite his suspicions Ryu merely nodded before turning around to exit the house.

"You aren't going to eat breakfast?" Ryu turned and gave his sister a small smile.

"Sorry Yuzu, I'm not that hungry this morning, I'll eat later."

Yuzu pouted before giving a reluctant nod, Ryu turned back around and his smile faded, exiting the house, he went back to his thoughts.

 **-XXXX-**

"RYUUUUUU!" Ryu glanced up from the floor before sighing and sticking out his arm, smirking slightly as his "best friend" collided with his bicep, falling to the floor and clutching his forehead.

"Good morning to you too Keigo."

The now named Keigo bolted to his feet and pointed an accusing finger towards the man that clotheslined him.

"You're such a jerk! I'm trying to show you my feelings of friendship, and you just-"

Keigo suddenly found it very hard to breathe as he found himself on the ground again, wheezing and trying to catch his breath.

"Stop being so dramatic." Ryu scowled down at his "best friend." All he did was knock the air out of him, that shouldn't warrant this kind of reaction.

"Morning Ryu." At hearing his name, said Kurosaki turned slightly to meet with the eyes of one of his other friends.

"Morning Mizuiro." Ryu gave him a nod before stepping over the still wheezing Keigo and into his classroom, making light conversation with Mizuiro.

"I heard that a truck hit your house, I'm surprised that you didn't come in late for helping clean up."

"I already cleaned up, got up early this morning."

"Need any more help?"

Ryu turned and glanced upwards, eyes locking with that of a friend he considered a brother, the corners of Ryu's mouth twitched upwards into a small smile.

"Thanks for the offer Chad, but I think we've got it taken care of."

Chad merely nodded.

"Oh? Are you Kurosaki-kun?"

Ryu turned at the strangely familiar voice and locked eyes with a very familiar head of black hair and violet eyes. Ryu's own eyes widened as he stared at the face of the Shinigami, Rukia if he correctly recalled, whom saved his life and the lives of his sisters.

"Kuchiki-san is a new student who just transferred here, if I'm right, she's going to be sitting next to you Ryu." Mizuiro explained, after which he turned back to his friend, "Huh? Are you alright, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Ryu faintly registered the sound of laughter at the remark of his friend. Quickly regaining his composure, Ryu offered her a small smile as he outstretched his hand to her.

"It's nice to meet you, Kuchiki-san, I hope that we can get along with one-another." Ryu greeted with false cheer.

"I hope so as well, Kurosaki-kun." Rukia outstretched her own hand before turning it upward revealing the words, _"make a scene and you're dead"_ written on her palm.

Ryu grasped her hand and gave it a firm shake; afterwards Rukia turned around and made her way to the desk next to his. Ryu's smile faded as his face slipped into a small scowl, _'What is she doing?'_ He wondered, _'Shouldn't she have gone back to that 'Soul Society' place?'_

Ryu's train of thought was ended as the bell rung, sighing, Ryu walked over to his desk and sat down in the chair. He glanced over to the shinigami that was sitting just a few centimeters from him.

Rukia returned the gaze and gave him a false smile before turning back to the teacher as her name was called.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu sighed as the teacher excused them to go eat lunch, the instant she did, Rukia stood up and grabbed his hand.

"Excuse me, but I need to speak with you on something Kurosaki-kun."

Without another word, Rukia dragged him from his desk to the doorway, Ryu tuned and shot Chad a raised eyebrow, said friend merely shrugged as he was dragged out of the room and into the hallway, once there Ryu promptly yanked his hand out of her grasp.

"You don't need to drag me around you know, I can walk by myself." With his piece said, Ryu walked ahead of her towards the back of the school; at least there they'd be able to speak without any interruptions.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu leaned against the low wall, regarding the shinigami in front of him with a half-lidded stare, he appeared lax, but a careful eye could see that his lean muscles were tense, almost like a spring wound too tight.

"So," Ryu began, his voice calm and collected, "What are you doing here?"

Rukia regarded him with similar caution, while most shinigami would reprimand her for being so careful around a human, she was powerless and he was obviously strong, his ease with that hollow just proved that he was more than he seemed.

"I'm here to keep an eye on you." Rukia finally answered, "You're the human with _my_ shinigami powers after all."

Ryu raised an eyebrow at that, "What are you talking about? I only used that power once, and I have no interest in using it again."

Rukia's eyebrows furrowed at that, this was going to be difficult, perhaps she should choose her words more carefully if she wanted this human to help her.

She almost scoffed at that idea, a human, helping her. It would be the equivalent to an ant trying to brew rice. Out of all races in this existence, humans were the weakest, they possessed little-to no spiritual capability, with humans with high enough spiritual energy only existing to see spirits, not enough to actually be a threat to soul society or any shinigami in existence.

"Oi." Rukia was snapped out of her thoughts by the voice of the human standing a few meters from her.

Rukia forced down a blush at being caught lost in thought, clearing her throat Rukia looked up at him expectantly.

"Why don't you just go back to that soul society place?" Ryu asked, "I already told you that I'm not going to use that power again, so there's no need to 'keep an eye on me.'"

"I can't go back to the soul society." Rukia replied solemnly, "Only shinigami can return to the soul society, last night, almost all of my power was given to you." Rukia said while pointing a finger at the center of Ryu's chest. "Which is why I'm asking you for help."

Ryu raised an eyebrow, why would this shinigami want _his_ help? After all, he was just a normal high school student. Okay, his hair was a little odd despite being natural, but that was beside the point.

"My help? Why do you need my help?" He asked with his brow still raised.

"Didn't you hear me? I don't have my shinigami powers anymore, so I need your help to take care of my responsibilities."

Ryu looked towards the ground, his eyebrow furrowed in thought, it was true that this woman was powerless, but was he willing to risk his life for people he didn't even know? Ryu almost slapped himself at that thought, he must really be stupid, and after all, why had he helped all those spirits with their problems?

"Fine, I'll help you out…" Rukia gave a small smile at his words; at least he had some sense of responsibility.

"But I have some conditions."

Her smile faltered at that, before she nodded, "Name them."

Ryu regarded her for a moment before closing his eyes, "First off, I don't want you to lie to me. If it's personal or you can't say it just say so, I'll do the same to you."

Rukia nodded, it was only natural that he'd have questions about shinigami and the soul society.

"Second off, if I'm going to help you, then I'm doing my way, I'll take advice, but I'm going to have the final call when it comes to certain subjects."

Rukia narrowed her eyes before giving a slightly more reluctant nod.

"Finally…" Ryu paused and opened his eyes as they began to glow a pale red color, "Under no circumstances is my family or friends to be involved in the affairs of the afterlife, I'm not going to tolerate any harm befalling them, from hollows, or _you."_

Rukia hastily nodded to calm the teen down, the last thing she wanted was to make a scene, after all, a seeing someone with glowing red eyes harassing a girl certainly wouldn't look good by human standards.

The pressure that had been on her shoulders vanished and the temperature had returned to normal along with Ryu's eyes.

Ryu opened his mouth to say something before her daireishinki started to beep, pulling out of her shirt pocket, she flipped open the screen and quickly read the message.

Looking up at her substitute she pulled on a gokon tekko and slammed her hand into his lower jaw, ejecting his soul from his body. She grabbed the front of his shihakusho and dragged him off before he could protest for her sudden movement.

"We have orders."

 **-XXXX-**

"Here me god! Why was I born? Hear my plea and summon me back your si-"

"What are you doing?"

Rukia scowled and turned around, obviously displeased at being interrupted during her prayer.

"I'm researching the language of this era!"

Ryu turned around, "You're off by a few centuries." With that said he began walking away.

Rukia puffed her cheeks in displeasure before following after the substitute. Looking back down to her manga she lost her thoughts about the day, there seemed to be a strangely large amount of hollows, true Ryu had little knowledge of controlling reiatsu and leaked it like a faucet, there still had been a large amount of hollows.

Rukia was suddenly drawn from her thoughts as she heard a screech from ancar stopping, Ryu stopped and she did next to him, looking from the car to the reason it had stopped, she saw a girl lying face down on the blacktop.

Ryu ran forward and knelt down to help the girl up, she was rather attractive with long auburn hair and gray eyes her bangs were parted on her forehead and she wore a pair of snowflake-shaped hairclips, as for clothing, she wore a purple buttoned up shirt and a yellow skirt with splashes of orange, she wore a pair of flats for footwear.

"You alright Orihime?" Ryu questioned as he helped the girl to her feet, she looked slightly dazed before she locked eyes with Ryu. Realizing she was holding his hand, this 'Orihime' let go as her face lit up crimson.

"I'm fine Ryu-kun, really!" She said as she waved her arms about, her face red.

"Weren't you just hit by a car?"

"Huh? I-I think so…"

"'You think so?'" Ryu parroted, "Which way did it go?"

Orihime glance around before looking back at Ryu, "It drove away."

Ryu sighed out of exasperation no doubt. Then Orihime finally took notice of her standing behind Ryu.

"Kuchiki-san?" She asked, no doubt curious as to why she was here.

"Who are you?" Rukia asked, no doubt the wrong thing to say as Ryu bent down and whispered into her ear.

"Idiot, her name is Inoue Orihime, she's in our class?"

"Oh Inoue-san, how are you this fine afternoon?" She asked with a curtsey.

"I'm fine Kuchiki-san, thank you for asking." Orihime responded in kind. Suddenly looking as if she were remembering something, she stood up straight and turned around, "My groceries!"

Quickly running and picking up the fallen plastic bag, she gathered up the contents and examined them.

"Okay! Everything's still good." Then she winced as she grabbed her leg.

"Orihime?" Ryu asked as he ran up to her, then Rukia took notice of the burn on her leg, it appeared almost as if she had been grabbed by something.

"Ano… Kuchiki-san, is everything okay? You have a scary look on your face."

Suddenly realizing that Ryu and Orihime were looking her at strangely, Rukia quickly put a false smile on her face and clapped her hands together.

"Well, Inoue-san, I hope that you feel better soon."

Orihime nodded and smiled, "Thank you, Kuchiki-san."

"Want me to walk you home Orihime?" Ryu suddenly spoke up.

"N-no, that's alright, thank you for the offer, Ryu-kun."

And with that, Orihime ran off in the direction of her home no doubt, Rukia watched her leave with a critical eye.

"Do you know that girl Ryu?" She asked as she turned to the red streaked head of her substitute.

Ryu nodded, "Yeah, we're pretty close."

"Does she have any relatives that passed away recently?"

Ryu looked back at her before looking in the direction that Orihime ran, "Not recently, but her brother died in our clinic a few years ago… His name was Sora."

Rukia looked in the direction Orihime ran again, this time with a look of slight worry.

' _I hope her brother hasn't hollowfied yet.'_

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu sighed as he lay down on his bed; the entire day had been really hectic.

First he had a strangely vivid dream while seeing an entirely white version of himself, then he had run into a shinigami in his high school, then he was dragged around the entire day killing hollows, Rukia had said that he would get practice with all the hollows he was killing.

At least he learned that you needed to cut the mask in order to kill the hollow, Rukia had said something about getting rid of the hollow fast and striking hard.

Ryu picked up _the tempest_ shakespeare novel and opened to a random page, easily flipping through the book and to the place where he left off.

"Onii-chan, have you seen some of my clothes? My pyjamas and one of my dresses are missing." Ryu looked up from his book to meet the eyes of his younger sister.

"Sorry Yuzu, I haven't seen them, have you asked Karin or Dad?"

Yuzu nodded, "I already asked them, they don't know either."

"Maybe you just left them in the wash and forgot to take them out." Ryu suggested.

"Maybe…" Yuzu murmured with a thoughtful look, the likes of which looked very amusing on the soft face of his younger sister.

Yuzu later grabbed the handle and closed the door, all while having that amusing look on her face. Ryu smiled and shook his head before turning back to his book and reading the next few sentences.

He looked up and glanced around when something began to feel… Off, almost like there was a monster standing behind him, waiting for the kill… A feeling that sent shivers down his spine, one that he especially couldn't ignore.

Then he jumped slightly when he heard a series of high-pitched beeps, Ryu glanced around his room in an attempt to discern the source of the noise when suddenly the door to his closet flew open.

"Ryu!" Rukia yelled, "Look out!"

Remembering the dream he had this morning, he leaped from his seated position to dodge a giant clawed hand coming through the wall.

Landing on his feet, he scowled as the hand retreated, but only to be replaced by a large white masked face, glowing red eyes glaring down at his body. Ryu grunted as his soul was ejected from his body, and drew his sword. The hollow growled as it unveiled its full presence. Its upper half was that of a human torso and its lower half was that of a snake. Ryu blocked the claw that had reemerged and leaped out of the way of the other one. Flipping back, Ryu used his wall as a springboard and raised his large weapon, slashing downwards. Ryu's sword made clear contact with the mask, however instead of the sword cutting clean through it, the mask cracked and broke away, revealing a portion of a human face. Despite it being a portion, Ryu knew whose face it was.

Before Ryu could say anything, the hollow retreated through a shadow, gripping its face in pain. Ryu stared at the former location of the hollow, eyes wide. His mind tried to make sense of this situation, the face, while only a portion had been...

"Ryu, let's go! It's not going to stay hidden for long!" Rukia's voice snapping Ryu out of his daze.

"Rukia… That hollow…."

"I know; I saw it too."

Ryu spun around, eyes wide as he locked gazes with the shinigami, "That face… That was Inoue Sora."

Rukia closed her eyes and sighed, "There's two reasons why I told you to strike the mask. One, so that you can finish it off quickly, two, so you'll never discover the hollow's identity."

 **-XXXX-**

Orihime Inoue was _not_ having a nice evening.

At first, it started out normally, with her friend Tatsuki stopping by to eat dinner with her, she told her of the day's events and how Ryu had offered to walk her home, then her teddy bear Enraku fell from the top shelf with a small cut in his head, his stuffing coming out.

Then she heard this ominous thumping, almost as if a large predator had entered her modest apartment and was now seeking out the two inhabitants.

Then, she underwent a sense of vertigo and momentarily blacked out, when she woke up, Tatsuki was sitting against the wall and shaking, her shoulder was torn open and bleeding.

After she had tried to reach out to her friend, she had come face to face with an enormous monster, it had the face and chest of a human with black hair, but the lower body of a serpent and large clawed hands, its face was covered by a bony white mask and it had a hole in the center of its chest, how it could survive was beyond her, but it was speaking to her and had hurt her friend.

" **She can't hear you Orihime."**

Orihime turned from her friend to face the monster, it's mouth was open as it spoke to her in a dark voice that sent shivers down her spine.

Gathering up her courage, she glared defiantly at the monster, "Leave us alone! Go away!"

" **That voice…"** The monster said, **"It makes me sad… SO VERY SAD!"**

The monster roared as it lunged towards her, Orihime bowed her head and closed her eyes tightly, however, instead of being bitten into, she heard something that sounded like metal scraping metal. Opening her eyes, she was met with the back of the boy that she admired, he was wearing what appeared to be a black kosode with similarly colored hakama, an enormous sheath was strapped to his back with a thick leather belt, in his hands was a wide-bladed katana, it was extremely long, almost as tall as he was, it had a red hilt with a rectangular tsuba and two blue tassels looped through the pommel.

The wide blade was currently between the teeth of the monster that had lunged towards her.

"R-Ryu-kun?" She asked with a small voice, instead of replying, Ryu gave a mighty roar and shoved the monster back, "Ryu-kun!"

Ryu turned at hearing Orihime's voice, "Orihime? How can you see me?" Ryu's attention was then drawn to the chain in the center of her chest.

" **Isn't it obvious?"** Ryu's attention was taken from Orihime to the monster, **"Orihime can see you… BECAUSE SHE'S ALREADY DEAD!"**

The monster roared and lunged again, Ryu raised his sword to defend from a claw swipe, but was knocked aside and through the wall. With no one to stand between her and the monster, it bent down and picked her up.

" **Orihime… Do you not recognize me?"** Orihime looked up into the monster's eyes, they weren't red anymore, they were brown and looked more human-like, and she had seen those eyes before, but in only one person.

"O-Onii-chan? Is that you?" She seemed to be right as the monster lessen his grip.

" **Yes… Orihime it's me, Sora."**

"B-but how? You died…"

" **Yes… I did die, and you prayed for me to stay, whenever you prayed I would be at peace, but… Then you met that** _ **girl**_ **and you prayed to me less, after you became friends with that shinigami you prayed even less, then when you started high school you stopped praying at all… Do you know how sad you made me? How much I was suffering? But I won't have to suffer, after I kill that shinigami, we'll be together, just you and me."**

"Wait! Onii-chan! You're going to kill Ryu-kun?"

" **DON'T TALK BACK TO ME!"**

Orihime flinched back at the tone of voice her brother took.

" **It's because of you that, I'm like this…"** Orihime gasped as her brothers' grip began to tighten, **"...I'LL KILL YOU!"**

"JUST TRY IT YOU BASTARD!"

Orihime suddenly found herself on the ground as Sora roared in pain, looking up, she saw Ryu plunge his sword into her brother's tail. However, he was thrown off and out the wall again.

" **Stay out of this shinigami!"** Sora roared, **"ORIHIME BELONGS TO ME!"**

"ORIHIME BELONGS TO NO ONE!" Ryu bellowed before he slammed his weapon into Sora's gaping maw, "Let me ask you something Sora…" Ryu murmured, "Do you know why older brothers are born first?" Ryu didn't wait for a reply, "It's so that they can protect the siblings born after them!"

Ryu sensed something coming as he leaped back and managed to avoid a tail swipe aimed to knock him back, however he didn't dodge the acid that was spit at him, said liquid landed on his hands and forced him to drop his sword, Sora capitalized on his lack of defence and punched him towards the ground, landing on his stomach, Ryu shakily pushed himself up.

"Stop messing around Ryu!" Ryu turned and glared at Rukia before getting to his feet shakily.

"Shut up… I'm doing this my way."

Rukia didn't have time for a retort as the hollow had leaped down from the hole in Orihime's wall and was now glaring them down.

" **DIE SHINIGAMI!"** Sora bellowed as he lunged for Ryu and Rukia.

Ryu's vision was suddenly obscured by auburn hair and his ears were filled with the sound of flesh being pierced.

"Orihime?"

" **Orihime…"**

Both had spoke her name at the same time and said auburn-haired woman fell back into the waiting arms of Ryu.

"Onii-chan, I'm sorry…" She spoke weakly, "The reason why I stopped praying was because I didn't want you to worry about me… I thought that if you knew that I was doing okay, that you'd be able to pass on peacefully."

Sora's eyes widened as she said this, then he roared and threw his head back, clawing at the mask that covered the human face beneath.

"What's happening?" Ryu asked to no one.

"He's fighting it…" Rukia muttered in shock, "The human soul is resisting the hollow.."

Then the mask shattered, revealing the full face of Inoue Sora, who bowed his head as he caught sight of his wounded sister.

"Orihime.." He muttered, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know what I was doing."

"It's fine Sora." Ryu reassured him, "She's alright, but are you going to be…"

Sora shook his head, "The hollow is still there, it's trying to break free, but I'm barely holding it back."

Turning around, his eyes rested upon the hilt of Ryu's sword.

Ryu followed his gaze and widened his eyes, "Sora… You don't have to-"

"It's not like that Ryu." Ryu turned to meet the eyes of Rukia who was tending to Orihime's wound via a strange green light in her hands. "Exorcising a hollow and killing it aren't one and the same, when you cut a hollow with a zanpakuto, it's the equivalent of forgiving them of their sins and allowing them to pass on to the soul society."

Ryu's eyes widened in realization and he turned back to Sora who was now pointing the tip of his sword at his neck.

"Wait…" Orihime spoke weakly, "Do you remember these hairpins? You gave them to me; I refused to wear them because I thought they were too childish… That was the last day I ever saw you… So please, let me say what I couldn't say then…"

" _Have a good day brother"_

Sora smiled at his younger sister and nodded before sinking the blade of the sword into his neck, the hollow's body soon faded away as a hell butterfly emerged to guide the spirit to soul society.

Orihime let a sob escape her throat at seeing the smiling face of her brother fade away; soon, tears began to flow from her eyes as she struggled to hold in her sadness.

Suddenly she found herself in the arms of the man that had saved her, Ryu didn't say anything as he held her close.

Orihime buried her face into his shoulder as she let her tears flow freely, the sorrow of losing the only family member close to her for a second time rushed through her in full force.

Ryu didn't say anything; he just held her close and let her cry out her anguish and sorrow.

 **Well… That was a grim ending.**

 **So that's chapter 2, and honestly? I don't really have anything to say about it, as for its length, well I want to get done with the important parts of the substitute arc ASAP 'cause then we can start getting to the actual crossover elements, that being said I wouldn't expect having any chapters longer than this. This one clocked in at just over 5k and I know that might not seem as long as other stories, for me that's a record.**

 **EDIT: So again, not a lot of change in this chapter, the biggest one was the interaction between Ryu and Zangetsu. I wanted to portray their relationship as something a bit more like Ichigo's and cannon Zangetsu. Ryu will still get the real Zanpakuto, but he'll have to work to get Zangetsu's full power.**

 **Anyway, Please Review, Favorite, or Follow.**


	3. Chapter 3: Brothers In Arms

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC.**

 **Edited as of 7/17/16**

Ryu sighed as he leaned against the gate before moving his eyes over to the struggling shinigami next to him, her brow furrowed in frustration as she picked at the source of her annoyance; she scowled as she turned towards Ryu.

"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me open this?" She asked with a clear tone of irritation.

Ryu smirked, "Just take the straw on the back and poke it into the foil on top." Rukia turned the small box around and confirmed the substitute's words. A small straw was strapped to the back of the small plastic box; Ryu's smirk grew as he watched her struggle with the plastic wrap on the straw. Her brow was furrowed and her violet eyes were bright with clear frustration.

Finally deciding that he had seen her struggle enough, Ryu grabbed the straw from her and tore the wrap off. "Here," was all he said as he handed her the straw.

"Thanks," Rukia grumbled as she poked the sharp end into the juice carton.

"Well, you two seem to be getting along well." Ryu turned at hearing the voice of one of his few friends.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryu asked.

"Haven't you heard? The school is going crazy with rumors that you and Kuchiki-san are together." Mizuiro explained which caused Ryu to sigh.

"Great, more rumors floating around about the 'karakura high school delinquent.'" Ryu muttered, annoyance clear in his voice, "Then again, if I really cared about what people thought, I would've gotten rid of the red streaks a long time ago."

"True," Mizuiro nodded before turning to Rukia, "Good afternoon, Kuchiki-san,"

Rukia looked up from her juice box and stared at Mizuiro, "Sorry, who are you?" She asked.

"Ah, that's right, we haven't been introduced. My name is Kojima Mizuiro and it's nice to meet you," Mizuiro said with a smile. "My hobbies include-"

"Womanizing" Ryu interrupted.

"Hey, Ryu!" Mizuiro protested.

"He may not look it, but he's got girls crawling over one another to get to him, the only reason he hangs out with me is because he gets some breathing room." Ru muttered to Rukia.

"That's not true! And besides, you know I prefer older women." Mizuiro protested.

Ryu again registered a faint sound of laughter in his head, before glancing at Rukia, who was much to interest in her juice box.

"That's why I'm warning her."

Mizuiro raised an eyebrow at his friend's words before their conversation was interrupted by a certain hyperactive brunette.

"It's not fair! Why does Ryu have to be so popular with all the girls?" Keigo whined, "First it's Orihime-chan, then it's Rukia-chan! Why is fate so cruel that I don't get any attention from the women of the-"

Keigo's rant was interrupted by Ryu as he rammed his fist into the brunette's stomach. "If you want to get attention, try to be a little more quiet when you're ranting."

Keigo lurched over and wheezed, gasping desperately to catch his breath, when he felt something hit his rear and suddenly found himself flying forward into the gate. Ryu glanced at Keigo, who was now on the ground and rubbing his face, before looking up at the one who had literally kicked his friend's ass.

"Oh it's just you, Chicken-head." Ryu stated, instantly getting a rise out of the person standing in front of him.

"Shut it Kurosaki! I'm only going to warn you one more time!" Chicken-head yelled, "Get rid of that damn hair dye and quit ripping off my style!"

Ryu scowled, "It seems as though your hearing still hasn't improved, or maybe you really _are_ part chicken and you can't remember anything that I've told you in the past."

As of this moment, chicken-head was fuming, reaching inside his school jacket, he pulled out brass knuckles and pulled them on. Ryu sighed as chicken-head charged without a second thought. The instant the delinquent was about to strike him, Ryu moved aside and stuck out his foot, chicken-head's ankle was caught instantly on the outstretched substitute's leg and fell over in a rather comical fashion.

Ryu let a small smirk appear as Chicken-head bolted to his feet and growled, glaring heavily at Ryu. When he went for another charge however, he felt his feet leave the ground as he flew through the air of the school roof.

Ryu's smirk turned to a smile as he met the eyes of his long time best friend, "Hey Chad." Chad responded with a smile and a nod as he stepped over the fallen form of Chicken-head. Ryu then took notice of the bandages wrapped around his muscular dark-skin.

"What happened to you?" Ryu asked with a raised eyebrow.

Chad remained silent for a few moments before producing a small cockatiel in a red suspension cage.

"I don't think a bird could cause those injuries Chad." Ryu said with a deadpan expression.

"I got these when a steel beam fell on my head," Chad said with his tone completely serious. "Then when I was walking to school today, a man hit me with his motorcycle, he fell off and looked pretty banged up, so I took him to the hospital, that's why I was late."

Rukia's attention was draw from her juice as she stared at the dark-skinned human with an incredulous look on her face, the fact that this human had withstood all of those attacks had shocked her. Of course he seemed rather durable with all of those muscles on him, but still, he had withstood injuries that would've gravely wounded most Shinigami, and he appeared fine!

"Hey, where'd you get the bird Chad?" Keigo asked, seemingly recovering from the kick that chicken-head had hit him with.

"I found him last night." Chad replied, his voice not leaving the monotone that it had been in since he arrived.

"He seems pretty cute." Keigo muttered before taking out a bag of snacks and offering one to the bird.

"Hello," the bird said in perfect Japanese, "My name is Shibata Yuichi; it's nice to meet you."

In that instant, Ryu knew that there was something off with the bird, he could see something behind it, just a faint outline, but it was there. A young boy, who was no older than nine years of age, with a chain in the center of his chest connecting him to the bird was standing behind it.

Rukia tapped his shoulder and locked eyes with him, in which she silently sent him a message with her eyes,

" _We'll talk about it later"_

 **-XXXX-**

"So," Ryu began, "What's with the bird?" He had led them to their usual meeting area, the back of the school. He was leaning against the wall, and Rukia was standing next to him with her arms folded.

"It's likely that the bird is being used as a vessel for that boy." Rukia answered.

At that Ryu raised an eyebrow, "You mean like your Gigai ***** thing?"

Rukia shook her head, "A Gigai is different, that soul is only temporarily housing itself in that bird's body, while a gigai has the same concept, shinigami are capable of staying in it for indefinite periods of time." Rukia then glanced downward, "The boy in that bird is probably lonely, so he possessed the cockatiel and tried to interact with humans, but he can still become a hollow if we don't perform konso on him."

Ryu nodded in understanding before glancing up to the sky in thought. Chad kept a bird that was really a small kid; he really hadn't changed at all.

Ryu smiled as he thought back to when he first met Chad.

 **-XXXX-**

It had been the start of eighth grade and it had been the similar run, bullies and delinquents picking on him because of his hair color. The only difference being was that these ones were serious. They all made the choice to gang up on him and they actually succeeded in restraining his arms. The leader of said bullies lashed out with a pair of brass knuckles. Each strike was dizzying and he felt the slight trickle of blood run down the side of his head.

Then to his surprise, the bullies restraining his arms went flying as he finally regained mobility. Ryu raised his head as the dizziness faded, coming to view a tall dark-skinned, and very muscular man being held down by the bullies while the leader hit him with brass knuckles. Ryu stood but a wave of nausea forced him back down to a knee. Ryu slowly struggled to his feet as he launched himself into the fray and slammed his fist into the leader's head.

The other bullies reacted instantly and began converging on him. However, they likely forgot about the large dark-skinned man that they were previously restraining.

Instantly several of them were sent flying due to the large man's punches and Ryu's light yet powerful attacks. It didn't take much time before the group of bullies was thinned out to a small amount.

Ryu panted as he turned to the large man, "Thanks for your help."

The man said nothing as he gave a small nod.

"So, what's your name?" Ryu narrowed his visible eye at the name tag attached to his blazer. "Your name's 'Chad' Huh?"

"Sado," the man corrected, "Yasutora Sado."

Ryu raised an eyebrow at that before giving a small smile, "Well Chad, guess I owe you one."

With his piece said Ryu turned and began walking out in the direction towards his school. He faintly registered the sounds of Chad's heavy footsteps behind him.

 **-XXXX-**

Several months later, Ryu found himself walking down the side of the road when he heard faint amounts of maniacal laughter and he heard something that was also _very_ familiar that was the sound of fists hitting flesh.

Ryu reacted instantly and charged in the direction of the sound, to meet a sight that made his blood boil. Chad was being held back by a bunch of bullies and their leader whacking Chad with his fists with brass knuckles.

Ryu threw his bag to the ground and sprinted in the direction of the bullies, intent on making them pay for what they were doing. When he was close enough, he jumped into the air and kicked the leader in the face, sending him tumbling to the earth. The four holding Chad let go at seeing their boss fall unconscious and ran towards Ryu, however two of them left the earth and flew in another direction as Chad finally decided to act. Ryu ducked one of the remaining one's punches and grabbed the other one before twisting the wrist and kneeing the owner's gut. He then proceeded to clock the other one in the face and stomp on his stomach to knock the air out of him.

Ryu then looked up to his largely muscled friend, "You okay Chad?"

Chad nodded wordlessly, but didn't bother to correct the teen. He learned early on that Ryu wouldn't let the nickname drop, so he'd let it stick.

Ryu nodded back before turning to the river, a thought had been bugging him for a while, one that had been there ever since he met Chad. "Hey Chad, why don't you ever fight back when those bullies start hitting you?"

Chad looked down as he ran his fingers over the mexican coin that his grandfather had given to him before he died. "I promised to my abuelo to never raise my fists for myself, I swore that I'd only fight if other's are at stake."

Ryu stared at the heavily muscled man with a raised eyebrow in confusion, "Abulo? What's that?"

Chad's gaze shifted to his friend, "It's spanish for grandfather."

"Spanish?" Ryu was _very_ confused at this point, "I thought that you said that you're from Okinawa."

"I am from Okinawa." Chad replied, "I left Japan for Mexico so that I could live with my Abuelo after my parents died. I was always bigger than those around me and was often picked on and bullied by those who were smaller than I. I was young and stupid and I thought that I could get away with anything at that age. One time, two people wanted to get even with me by returning the favor, my abuelo… He protected me, and he never raised his fists against the men that beat him. He gave me this medallion to remind me of our promise that I would never fight for myself that I'd always fight for those around me."

Ryu smiled at the large boy as he finished his story, "Your grandfather sounds like he was a good man, Chad."

Chad looked back and nodded, a rare smile gracing the large boy's dark-skinned face.

 **Sorry for the heavy delay, writer's block really is a bitch.**

 **Anyway, this was a rather short chapter. Don't really know why myself so don't ask.**

 **Updates: This story isn't going to be in the bleach category anymore, instead I'm shifting it to the crossover section with Highschool DxD. That probably gives away some of the crossover elements, but who cares.**

 **EDIT: So, I added a lot to this chapter, I felt like it was a little rushed and I didn't portray Ryu and Chad's relationship well enough in this chapter originally. So, to solve that, I added the part where Chad tells Ryu about his life story with his grandfather. I'll be saving the promise that they made for later.**

 **Please, Review, Favorite, and Follow.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Hellish Battle

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC.**

 **Edited as of 7/17/16**

Ryu's day just got a whole lot worse.

After he recounted of how he and Chad met, Rukia had asked him if Chad could see spirits, the answer of course was no. Then the bell rang and they made their way back to class.

When Ryu went home after school, it turned out that there was a huge accident on the road nearby and his family was rushing around in an attempt to get all of the patients comfortable. Ryu himself was helping his uncharacteristically serious father with treating the victims of the accident. Things began to heat up when Chad was brought in. He was even more banged up than he was in the morning. But what worried Ryu the most was the large footprint-like burn mark on his back.

He remembered seeing a familiar burn on Orihime's leg. Rukia had later explained that hollow spiritual power, or reiryoku, was dangerous to humans and if potent enough it could be lethal. But the point of contact that the hollow touched the human often resulted in a burn mark that signified the area which the hollow reiryoku came into contact with the human.

That meant that Chad had come into contact with a hollow, which usually meant he was being targeted by one.

This was the reason for Ryu's mad dash through the areas of Karakura town, he and Rukia had split up so they could cover more ground. He just hoped that everything was alright on her end.

Suddenly Ryu stopped in place at the sight of a young dark-haired girl stumbling down the area. It took him a millisecond to realize that the young girl was in fact his younger sister.

"Karin!" Instantly on the move, he managed to catch her before she fell and hit the ground.

"Ryu, what happened?" The substitute turned to catch sight of Rukia running towards him and his incapacitated sister.

"I don't know; she just collapsed." Ryu turned back to his sister, "Karin…"

" _Get her to your home."_

Ryu's neck snapped back to Rukia, "Are you sure?"

Rukia nodded, "I know for certain that you won't be able to focus with your sister in such a dire state. Plus she's starting to look bad, get her home."

Ryu hesitated, before standing up and running in the direction of his house. Rukia nodded in his direction before turning and going in the opposite direction.

 **-XXXX-**

After several minutes of running, Rukia turned a corner and froze she had locked eyes with the large dark-skinned brute that they were working so hard to find. Much to her surprise however, Chad turned and sprinted in the opposite direction.

"Chad wai-!"

" _ **You smell delicious."**_

Rukia tensed before leaping into the air and flipping forward. When she landed on her feet she came face to face with a large hollow, its mask was a sort of cross between a reptile and a bat. It had a large collar of brown fur just above its hollow hole, which rested on green flesh. It had a sort of hunch to it, leaning down on all fours as a folded extension jutted out from its front legs.

" **Well, looks like you can see me huh?"** The hollow spoke with clear amusement in its voice. **"You do seem to have a higher-than average amount of power huh? Still hardly enough to provide a challenge to me though."**

With its words said, the hollow lunged forward with its mouth open. Rukia reacted instantly and jumped into the air, grabbing on to the top of the hollow's mask and flipped forward before begining to swiftly chant.

"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone," Rukia thrust her right palm forward and braced her arm with her left, "flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws. Hado #33 Sokatsui!"

Instantly the back of the hollow was consumed by smoke as Rukia landed on the ground.

' _I did it…'_ Rukia thought to herself, _'My shinigami powers have finally returned.'_ Rukia's thoughts were cut short however as the hollow that she had just blasted into oblivion turned and faced her.

" _ **That's all you've got?"**_

Rukia didn't respond, this hollow had taken a full-incantation Sokatsui directly to the back of its head and it didn't even look scratched! While Sokatsui definitely wasn't as powerful compared to the higher-level spells, it was still a force to be reckoned with if performed by the right individual. She was extremely talented in kido, her professors in the Shin'o academy had always praised her above-than average skill and considering that the one she had used, this hollow should've been obliterated on the spot. This meant only one thing.

' _My powers still haven't returned in full.'_

Rukia scowled at the hollow before standing up straight and moving backwards slightly.

" **Heh, I've seen something like that before."** The hollow said with no small amount of mirth in its voice. **"That was a Shinigami's spell wasn't it? That means you're a shinigami aren't you?"**

Rukia didn't dignify the beast with a response save clenching her fists, if this hollow had encountered shinigami before than it was going to be much harder for Ryu to deal with. The older and more experienced the hollow was, the more difficult it was to dispatch. Also, Ryu wasn't like much shinigami, instead of forming a strategy, he just runs in sword swinging. That may work for standard hollows, but this one was smart.

" **Been awhile since I've had any shinigami to eat, I've been getting kinda hungry from chasing that bird brat all over the place anyway."** The hollow sneered.

Then its monologuing was interrupted as a large muscled fist collided directly into its back, the hollow lurched downwards, revealing the individual brave (or foolish) enough to attack the fallen spirit.

"Chad!" Rukia called with no small amount of shock, according to Ryu he couldn't see spirits. Perhaps the substitute was incorrect?

No, Ryu was right, she knew because the dark-skinned giant was now swinging his arms around in random directions, apparently only hitting the hollow by chance beforehand.

" **That was close, for a second there I thought that muscle-bound idiot could see me. But it looks like-GRK."**

The hollow didn't finish as Chad just landed another punch directly into the mouth of the mask.

"Alright, I hit him again." Chad said with his monotone voice, the hollow was easily becoming angry, this human had hit him, not only once, but _twice_ , and on _complete accident._

The hollow quickly calmed down when he realized that he had one thing that this human and this shinigami didn't have.

Rukia's eyes widened when the folded extensions on the back of the hollows forelegs abruptly opened, revealing a large pair of batlike wings that were immediately put to use as the hollow jumped into the air flying beyond her reach and Chad's reach as well.

"Where'd he go?" Chad asked, his voice remaining the monotone that it always was.

"He's in the air, we can't reach him." Rukia informed her comrade in arms as she scowled at the hollow in the air. There was no way that she could jump that high in a gigai, and Chad didn't have enough reiryoku to be considered a threat to the hollow in the air above them.

Then, a lightbulb flicked on in her head, Chad didn't have much spiritual power, but he might not need it. Instantly turning to the gentle giant, she hastily informed her partner of her scheme.

After some small amounts of persuasion, Rukia found herself crouched in the strong grip of the dark-skinned man that was her partner's friend. Chad was still a little skeptical, but that was to be expected as he couldn't see the hollow. But Rukia was confident that with this idea, she could catch the hollow off guard and maybe, just _maybe,_ she could injure it to give Ryu an advantage.

"Okay, here we go." She told Chad, "Right! Up a little… Too far!"

It took a couple of more directions from Rukia before Chad finally had her lined up for a direct shot at the hollow's ugly mask. Rukia narrowed her eyes in anticipation and slight suspicion. The hollow wasn't moving, now Rukia was confident in her plan, but she wasn't stupid. She was well aware that this hollow was smart, _very_ smart. Additionally, if the hollow wanted to avoid it would, but it just stayed in the same area, just hovering in the air.

Rukia dismissed her worries and signalled Chad to throw her which he responded with vigor, throwing her into the air with an incredible amount of velocity. Her eyes narrowed as she flew towards the hollow without slowing down, the mask of it opened and the glowing yellow pupil's widening to simulate shock.

" **I underestimated you! I'm sorry, I'll take back everything I've said and done! Just please be merciful!"** The hollow's shocked look shifted to a dark grin. **"Just Kidding!"**

From its fur collar sprouted a small frog like creature with an elongated head and a small gap in its forehead. Rukia's eyes widened when the frog sprayed a sticky substance combined with several small pink wormlike creatures.

The worms latched onto her body as the green liquid that accompanied them splashed and ruined her uniform, at the last second she managed to cover her face with her arms and protect it from the wormlike beings that had latched on everywhere else.

Rukia then felt herself begin to fall back towards the ground, much to her horror. However, just before she met her end, the gentle giant that had thrown her lunged forward and caught her. Rukia glanced upward and glared at the hollow that had sent these strange worms (on closer inspection they resembled leeches more than worms) onto her.

" **Heh heh. How d'ya like** _ **that**_ **Shinigami?"** The hollow taunted, **"Those leeches won't come off; they're staying where they are."** Rukia snarled as she struggled to attempt to pull one off, **"Didn't I say that wouldn't work? Hey, big guy, you might wanna drop that shinigami."**

After the hollow spoke, its mouth opened and its strange forked, tongue came out. Before Rukia had any time to discern why the hollow was sticking its tongue out, a quiet shriek sound reverberated through the surrounding area. Then, without warning, the leeches exploded. Rukia grit her teeth in pain, normally she would use her reiatsu to defend from the brunt of the damage, but with her reiatsu so low, she couldn't muster enough to block the severity of the attacks.

"New girl… are you okay?" Chad told her with no small amount of worry in his eyes despite his voice being monotone. Rukia sent him a small smile in reassurance.

"I'm fine." In truth, she was anything but fine, any plans she had formed in the short moments were now rendered useless due to the hollow's leeches. Rukia's smile shifted into a frown as she tried to come up with some semblance of a plan, but the only thing she could come up with was waiting it out until Ryu got back, but the only problem with that was that Ryu was with his sister and it was likely that he still wouldn't be back for several minutes. That was time that she didn't think that the hollow would give them.

" **Hey, if you're done talking, you might want to take a look in front of you."** The hollow said with a sneer, Rukia looked up and what she saw caused her eyes to widen, and then narrow in obvious hatred.

Several feet in front of her was the small cockatiel that held the soul of the young child, and what surrounded it was the very frog like things that had sprayed her with leeches to begin with. Her jaw clenched in anger this time as she restrained herself from shouting up at the hollow.

"I'm sorry mister, he caught me." The boy said resignedly, Chad's eyes widened beneath his bangs before they narrowed in obvious contempt.

" **Well, now that I've got your attention, why don't we play a little game? Shinigami?"** The hollow swooped closer to the ground.

"What do you want?" Rukia snarled, this hollow had long since crossed the line when he brought an innocent soul into this. That was enough to earn her spite.

The hollow seemed to smile, **"Here's how the game works, I chase you, and you try to live. And if the big guy tries to intervene, I'll blow up the little birdy."**

Rukia glared at the hollow as she stood from Chad's arms, "He's holding the bird hostage in order to keep you from intervening, stay where you are, I'll draw its attention, when it leaves grab the cockatiel and run, get Ryu and send him in the direction I go."

Chad opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and nodded before standing up and glaring in the direction of the hollow.

Rukia sent him a grateful smile before nodding and turning back to the hollow. "All right hollow, I'll play your game, when do we start this?"

The hollow merely smirked in response. **"The game starts... Now"**

Instantly the frogs that surrounded the bird sprayed a fresh set of leeches at her. Prepared for such an ambush due to her training, Rukia leapt to the side and ran past the cockatiel the instant she hit the ground.

" **The hunt is on! Shinigami!"** The hollow sneered **"Let's see how long you can last compared to the rest!"**

The hollow took back to the air and flew in the direction Rukia went, the remaining frogs following after him.

 **-XXXX-**

"Mister, the monsters are gone." Yuichi spoke after several minutes passed.

Chad nodded before moving forward and picking up the birdcage, turning and running in the other direction. He didn't know where Ryu was at the moment but going in the direction of his friend's house would be a good start.

"Wait! That Onee-chan is going to get killed!"

Chad looked down at hearing the cockatiel's frantic words before he looked back up.

"There's nothing we can do." He said solemnly, "Right now all we can do is get Ryu and hope that she'll be alright."

Despite being confident in his strength, he knew when he was outmatched, and whatever that monster was, it was strong. He didn't know what Ryu could do to it, but Ryu had never broken a promise, never since _that_ day. He always kept his promises and fought for what was right.

That was why he ran, he ran faster than he ever ran before. He needed to find Ryu, before it was too late.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu moved slowly down the streets of his neighborhood, he had already taken Karin back to their house; it was what she had told him that made him take his time.

Apparently, Chad had taken the bird with him into the medical room, he didn't notice as he was treating other patients, but Karin did. Ryu was aware of her ability to see spirits but he didn't think that her spiritual sensitivity was so great that she could see what that last spirit's thoughts were.

Karin had been pretty shaken up, hell she was _crying_.It had been _years_ since he had seen her cry. Even when she broke her leg a few years back she didn't cry, she never cried, ever since Mom died.

" _You have to tell that boy… That he can see his mother again if he passes on."_

That was what he told her, with tears streaming down her cheeks as she croaked each word out.

Ryu knew now more than ever that he had to find that bird and send it to the soul society, because if he didn't, the kid inside the bird would be resigned to his fate of forever being a tool for the enjoyment of a monster

And it would be a cold day in hell before he would let that happen.

"Ryu!"

An ever familiar voice jolted him from his thoughts; standing in front of him was the muscle-bound body of his best friend.

"Chad!" His eyes then narrowed, "Where's Rukia?"

Chad pointed in the other direction, "She was being chased by that monster."

' _He must mean that hollow.'_ Ryu merely nodded before running in the direction Chad pointed, but as he passed by him he gave his friend some advice.

" _Keep that bird safe, and get away from here, this is going to get messy."_

 **-XXXX-**

Rukia was starting to regret sending Chad away.

At the current moment she was still playing the hollow's "game" and she had managed to dodge the majority of the parasitic projectiles the hollow had shot at her, however a few lucky shots were shown by the light burns on her uniform and the green slime in her hair. How long had she been running? How many leeches had that hollow sent at her? She didn't know the answer to any of the questions spinning around in her head. But there was one question in particular that she _needed_ the answer to.

 _When was Ryu going to arrive?_

" **Oi, shinigami!"**

That was another issue; the hollow that was chasing her just wouldn't _shut up_. It always had something to say, whether it was a taunt or just a blatant statement, it was really starting to grate on her nerves and she wished that she had her powers back just so she could shut the damn thing up.

" **I'm getting a little bored, why don't you just come out of that damn fake body and fight already."**

Her eyes widened before she let a small smirk appear on her face, Chad must have found him and sent him in this direction, because right outside that hollow's field of vision was the substitute that she had granted her powers to.

Following the hollow's "advice" she stopped moving after turning a corner and turned around slowly with a small smirk.

" **Now that's more like it, why don't you jump out of that body already? Unless you're afraid and you're just going to start running again."** The hollow spoke with a sneer.

"I'm not running, but I'm not going to be fighting you."

Before the hollow could ask what she meant, it's head was forced downwards and Rukia locked eyes with the substitute.

"You're late."

"Don't tell me whether or not I'm late Kuchiki." Ryu's eyes travelled down her burned uniform. "Looks like you got a little roughed up."

"Were you really worried about me?" She asked with a mocking tone.

Ryu's scowl turned into a smirk, "No, I knew you could run fast."

" **Hey, human, do yourself a favour…"** The hollow's head lowered, **"AND GET** **THE HELL OFF ME!"**

Ryu jumped and landed in between the hollow and Rukia. He turned around slowly with a small smirk on his face, no doubt infuriating the hollow in front of him.

" **Who the hell are you human?"** The hollow's patience was nearly spent. Between annoying muscle bound idiots, shinigami that won't get out of their fake bodies and stupid humans that stepped on his head, it was a shock that he was restraining himself from outright sucking the human's soul out and devouring it.

" _Kurosaki Ryu, substitute shinigami."_

The hollow's annoyance faded to surprise at hearing the words of the boy in front of him, **"Substitute shinigami huh?"** Realization dawned in the hollow's eyes, **"Crap, I shouldn't've let you two get back near each other; I should've taken the both of you out separately!"**

During the hollows rant, Rukia grabbed the gokon tekko out of her jacket pocket and slammed her palm into the back of Ryu's head, instantly ejecting his soul from his body. The substitute reacted instantly by drawing his massive blade and charging the hollow with a sword mid-swing.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu scowled as he charged the hollow with impressive speed gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands, he jumped and swung downwards, intent on cleaving the hollow's mask in two. The hollow moved back with surprising speed despite its size. Its eyes narrowed as it unfurled its wings and glided into the air, a frog creature coming out of it's fur collar.

With a single command the frog leapt at the shinigami on the ground, Ryu merely swung his sword and found it surprisingly easy to cleave through the frog. The hollow however merely smirked.

" **Oi, idiot, just because you cut the frog doesn't mean you're in the clear!"** The hollow whipped out its tongue and sent out the signal and the leeches scattered on the ground instantly detonated. Ryu managed to avoid the brunt of the damage, but he still took some burns to his flesh.

Ryu grit his teeth before he scowled up at the gliding hollow, raising his sword, he tensed his legs and leapt upwards. In response, the hollow spawned more frogs which launched several amounts of leeches at the shinigami rapidly approaching. Ryu gritted his teeth as he swung his sword at the hollow in an attempt to stop it before he could detonate the leeches now attached to his body and Shihakusho.

He had no such luck as the hollow stuck its tongue out and sent the pulse outward. Ryu was powerless to stop the parasitic artillery as they exploded and dealt direct damage to his body. His figure was completely concealed by a cloud of green gas.

The gas cleared, revealing Ryu to be covered in minor burns and wounds, the teen looked thoroughly roughed up. Green smoke seeped off of his arms and Shihakusho as he glared up at the flying monster.

" **How do you like** _ **that**_ **shinigami!"** The hollow laughed, **"And here I though that you might put up a better fight."** The hollow continued as he drifted closer and closer to the ground, **"Maybe you'll bring out your full power if I eat that shinigami that ran from me? Or maybe if I eat the soul of the bird?"** The hollow couldn't see it, but Ryu's grip on his sword tightened with each word the hollow spoke.

" **Or maybe…"**

" _ **If I eat the big muscle bound idiot that punched me earlier."**_

Something within Ryu snapped and his reiatsu skyrocketed, blowing away the rest of the green smoke revealing that his body was surrounded with a malicious red aura and his eye was glowing red with power.

The hollow's eyes widened as he felt a deep, primordial rage emanate from the bly in front of him, but what surprised him more was the look in the boy's visible eye, they no longer looked like an annoyed high school student's. He had seen it before; he saw it in the mirror when he was alive.

The boy in front of him looked like a cold-blooded killer.

As soon as he had that thought, Ryu's body shot forward, the red aura fading, but the glow in his eye didn't.

With a single horizontal swing, Ryu's blade sliced through the mouth and tongue of the hollow. The hollow yelled as it felt the steel of the zanpakuto cutting through its mask.

" **Y-You! Arg!"** The hollow could barely speak without aggravating the wound to his mouth. Ryu himself merely stared at the hollow with a stoic expression, his eye no longer holding the appearance of a killer. But this version scared the hollow even more than the previous state did.

Instead of rage, his eye was empty. Little more than an endless ocean of emptiness, it held no sympathy or regard for the beast in front of him. With a single swift movement, Ryu swung his sword upwards, effortlessly cutting through the hollow's mask.

The hollow didn't even have time to scream before its body dissipated in small particles, Ryu blinked as he came back to his senses.

' _What just happened?'_ Ryu glanced around. _'The last thing I remember is that hollow saying…'_

Before he could gather his thoughts, the body of the hollow rematerialized, a pair of large red gashes, one vertical and one horizontal, forming an upside-down cross. Ryu's eyes widened as a pair of enormous gates sprung from the hollow's wounds. The gates appeared to be held closed by various chains and ropes. The design of two large skeletons holding the handles to the gates was on the surface of the gages themselves.

"Don't be startled, Ryu" The substitute turned to see Rukia standing beside him, her face a mask of neutrality. "This hollow is merely receiving the punishment for its actions."

Ryu turned back to see the chains snapping and the gates opening up, the only thing keeping them from opening completely was the ropes that wrapped around the gates. A zanpakuto can only forgive a soul's sins from their time as a hollow, if they commit horrible sins in life… Then they are sent to Hell, for their punishment."

Ryu watched as the hollow desperately tried to move away from the gates, but before he could escape, an enormous sword pierced through the red haze that concealed the interior of the gates from view, and stabbed the hollow through its stomach. Slowly dragging it in as an evil laugh resounded through the air.

Ryu felt a shudder run down his spine as the gages closed and vanished. Despite the things he had seen thus far, that was quite possibly the most disturbing image that he had witnessed.

 **-XXXX-**

Rukia frowned as she stared at the bird and rested a hand on the cage. "It's no use, his chain of fate is severed, now he won't be able to return to his normal body anymore."

The birds eyes quickly turned sad as he looked to the ground, with a barely audible, "Oh no…" Rukia quickly put on a smile as she tried to reassure the young boy that the afterlife wasn't such a bad place when Ryu stepped in behind her.

"You know that you're overdoing it right?" Ryu stated before turning to the crestfallen bird, "The important thing is that if you pass on, you'll get to see your mother again."

The bird looked up at that, his eyes that were previously filled with sadness were now filled with hope. He then turned to the man that had saved him who was leaning against the wall.

"Mister, I'm sorry, but I really want to see my mom again." The bird said; Chad merely smiled.

"That's fine… but Yuichi." The bird looked up again, "When I die and pass on… Can I still carry you around like before?"

Chad couldn't see it, but the boy that was inhabiting the bird instantly grinned and nodded. Chad smiled and nodded back. Ryu just shook his head and drew his sword.

"If you're ready kid, let's get the konso over with."

Pressing the pommel of his sword to the forehead of the boy, a light blue glow overtook the area as he sunk into the ground and flew away in the form of a small light blue sphere, guided by a black swallowtail butterfly.

 **-XXXX-**

' _It's coming up again.'_

Ryu looked to his floor upon entering his room, hands in his pockets as he turned and knocked on his closet door.

"Rukia! I need to talk to you!"

The slight shuffle of clothing and the sliding of a door revealed the small shinigami resting on a futon. "What is it Ryu?"

"I'm going to need a day off from shinigami duties for tomorrow." Ryu said with a downcast expression.

"What!? I can't allow tha-"

" _Let it happen!"_

Rukia's eyes widened from the sudden forcefulness in the tone from the young substitute.

Ryu sighed before turning around, "Tomorrow is the anniversary of my mother's death…"

Rukia's eyes widened as she quickly place a hand over her mouth to keep from yelling. It was true that Ryu didn't speak much of his mother; in fact she hadn't seen or heard a mother in the short time she'd been here. But she merely assumed that the mother had a difficult work schedule she didn't think she was dead.

"How did she die?" Rukia instantly felt a wave of guilt wash over her as she saw Ryu's muscles tense.

"She was killed…"

Rukia slowly stood up from her temporary bed and wrapped her arms around the young substitute.

"Sorry I asked."

"You didn't know."

 **-XXXX-**

As it was late in the evening and most were asleep, no one noticed the train that pulled in to the station in Karakura town, the doors slid open and a single passenger stepped off, he wore a white dress shirt and black slacks, a dark colored tie around his neck and black dress shoes on his feet.

He was of lean build and had traditional japanese features, the only differences being his taller than average height and head of bright orange hair.

His face was somber as he stared out into the neighborhood of his birthplace.

"Mom… I've come home."

 **AN: Well, this took a while. Sorry for the long wait, I had a bit of work to do and felt pretty lazy for the past couple of weeks. Also, sorry if some characters seem a little OOC in this chapter.**

 **So, in this chapter, Ryu faces off against shrieker and sends him straight to hell, you'll notice that I cut out some scenes from the original source material. Reason being is because Ryu and Ichigo aren't the same person, Ichigo wanted to get answers from the hollow if he was the one who killed the bird's mother. Ryu wanted nothing more than to kill the hollow for threatening his friends.**

 **At any rate, please Review, Favourite, or Follow.**


	5. Chapter 5: Fishing For Her Killer

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC**

 **Edited as of 7/20/16**

 _It had been raining when it happened._

 _Ryu and his mother, Masaki, had been walking home from a day at the dojo that Ryu attended for karate lessons. Normally Ryu would have a frustrated scowl marring his 9 year old face, but today was different. He had done it, he had finally beaten her. It had taken a lot of effort and hours of training, but it had finally happened. He won against his rival, Arisawa Tatsuki._

 _She was a girl with short black hair and brown eyes. Despite being a child around his age, she could pack a mean punch, a_ really _mean punch. That didn't mean Ryu ever gave up though, he was certain that as long as he had guts and the strength to do it, he could win. Tatsuki scoffed when she heard him say that, but he was more than willing to prove her wrong._

 _And he did._

 _To celebrate his mother said that she would be making his favorite curry for dinner that night, and he could barely keep the grin off his face when he heard that._

 _Ryu remained grinning as he walked with his mother's hand in his. The boy just couldn't stop with his ridiculously happy mood. While he was smiling another head poked out from their mother's legs, looking quite a lot like Ryu with the exception of the hair and eye color. While Ryu had black hair with an occasional streak of red running through it, the boy on the other side of his mother had bright orange hair. And while Ryu had deep blue eyes resembling an ocean, the boy had dark doe brown eyes that resembled the trunk of a tree._

" _You know I came close to beating Tatsuki too, mom." The boy said with a slight tone of envy in his voice._

" _Yeah, but you still didn't beat her Ichigo." Ryu spoke with a slightly smug tone._

 _Ichigo puffed his cheeks indignantly and opened his mouth to say something but Ryu didn't hear it, he was focused on beating Tatsuki next time. The boy was determined to prove her wrong again and again, but it was clear that he'd have to work to attain that goal._

" _Now Ryu," Both boys were taken from their thoughts when their mother began to speak. "While I am proud of what you have accomplished, you can't treat your brother in such a manner, remember what I told you about kindness?"_

 _Ryu nodded, not wanting to upset his mother with a seeming lack of memory. He looked down before glancing ahead, and then he noticed the girl by the river._

 _She didn't look any older than him; she had short, black hair stylized in a bob cut with pinkish, purple eyes and pale skin. As for attire, the girl wore a white cloak that completely concealed her body below her neck._

 _Her appearance wasn't what concerned Ryu, what concerned him was the fact that she was making her way to the riverbank and looked as though she was about to jump in._

 _Reacting within an instant, Ryu let go of his mother's hand and sprinted towards the girl in a desperate attempt to stop her. He barely registered the sounds of his mother and brother screaming at him to wait. But he ignored them; he was far too focused on stopping the girl._

 _With absolutely no hesitance, he leapt forward and tried to snatch the girls shroud, but his eyes widened in surprise when he found that his hand went right through it._

 _Ryu stumbled and fell onto all fours in the riverbank as he stared at the rapidly approaching forms of his mother and brother. His mother had a look of desperation on her face._

 _Everything was a blur after that, he remembered seeing a flash of bright light. Then a flash of pink, the sound of flesh ripping and blood gushing from a freshly made wound and the screaming of his brother._

 _When he finally came to, he was lying underneath his mother in the pool of her blood. Despite being young, he knew what this meant._

 _His mother was gone, and she wasn't coming back._

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu blinked as he came back from remembering the death of his mother. He let loose a small sigh as he and his family stood at the base of the hill that lead to the cemetery where his mother's empty body lay. The reason why they were waiting before proceeding up the hill was in fact a certain orange haired young man who was _late_.

Ryu grunted in slight irritation, even if he was coming from a foreign country after studying abroad, that didn't mean he had to be late for _every_ reunion. In fact it was unlikely that he would arrive for the next several minutes.

Just as he thought that, a head of orange hair came into view and Ryu felt a slight scowl come on at the sight of the man that was slowly approaching their position.

"You're late." He stated as the orange-haired teen came into talking distance.

"Why don't you try flying from halfway across the world?" He said back with a scowl.

Ryu sent his own scowl at the orange haired boy in front of him, before his face cracked a small smile.

"It's good to see you again, Ichigo."

Ichigo cracked a smile of his own, "Yeah, you too Ryu."

"OH ISN'T THIS JUST WONDERFUL! MY TWO SONS MEETING TOGETHER AGAIN AN-mff."

"Shut up Goat chin!"

"You're starting to annoy me."

Isshin's celebration was cut short when both Ichigo and Ryu simultaneously sent their fists directly into his face. Sending him flying in the direction of the cemetery.

Ryu tuned and gave Ichigo a smirk, one of which the orange-head returned.

"Looks like you haven't lost your touch, strawberry"

"Neither have you, lizard."

 **-XXXX-**

When Ichigo arrived and Isshin had come back from his flight, the family of five began their trek up to the cemetery to visit the grave of the one person that all adored. Ryu noted that the day was incredibly hot, even for one in June and he found himself shielding his eyes with his hand on several occasions.

The Kurosaki family was uncharacteristically solemn today, including the usually boisterous Isshin. It was for good reason however, as this was the day that the sun in the Kurosaki household vanished, leaving behind a cold empty place. Ryu still felt it, the sting from losing the one he cared the most about. The rage and hate he felt towards his own powerlessness was the only thing that could compare.

"Hey, who's that?"

Ryu was brought from his thoughts by Karin's question, looking up he was met with the sight of the woman who had taken up residency in his closet. Said Shinigami was wearing a yellow sundress and was waving around quite the large sun hat with a silly smile on her face.

"Doesn't she look pretty happy to be visiting a grave?" Karin mused, "Almost looks like she's waving to you, Yu-Nii."

Ryu sighed before walking ahead of his family, "Yeah she's someone from my middle school class. I'll go talk to her. You guys go on ahead."

His family nodded as Ryu moved up and grabbed Rukia's hand.

 **-XXXX-**

"So, what are you doing here?"

Ryu received a strange sense of déja vu at the scene, he was leaning against a tree with his hands in his pockets and Rukia was standing in front of him with his arms folded.

"I'm here in case a hollow comes around to attack." Rukia stated plainly.

"Didn't I ask for a day off?"

"Yes, but I can't control whether a hollow comes around or not due to your inability to control your Reiatsu."

Ryu scowled off to the side before mumbling something along the lines of "It's harder than it looks" under his breath. Rukia gave him a small smirk in response.

To say that Ryu sucked at controlling his reiatsu was an understatement, he had no control over it whatsoever. The other day with Shrieker was the only time she sensed it spike, and that was more than likely due to emotional stress than actual control over it.

Wiping the smirk off her face, she quickly got back to the original reason that she was here.

"Ryu, you said that your mother was killed."

Rukia was so engrossed with the coming question that she didn't notice Ryu's muscles tense in silent warning.

"Do you think she was killed by… a hollow?"

Ryu's clenched his jaw as Rukia spoke that, however like before. She didn't notice.

"You have to admit it is possible! You said once that you could see spirits since you were a child, so it's likely that the little control you had over your spiri-"

" _Shut up!"_

Rukia's eyes widened as Ryu's enraged outburst interrupted her. The only other time she had heard him raise his voice in anger was last night, and that was when…

Rukia looked toward the ground as she realized the gravity of what she just said.

"Why is it that everything has to be with hollows with you?" Ryu's question made Rukia glance up again with a raised eyebrow. "You're always assuming that something in my life has to do with a hollow, well you're wrong. It wasn't thugs, gangs, or hollows that killed her. _I killed my mother Kuchiki Rukia._ "

Rukia's eyes widened again as she heard Ryu's final statement, he pushed himself off the tree he was leaning on and walked away from her, not uttering another word.

Rukia felt a deep guilt seep into her heart as she watched the retreating back of the human she had given her powers to. Ryu obviously loved his mother quite a lot, because if he didn't than he wouldn't have this reaction. Rukia briefly felt a bit of envy before she promptly dismissed it. Ryu's mother had been killed, she couldn't be jealous of something like that.

 **-XXXX-**

Ichigo watched Ryu walk away from his place behind the tree, he knew something was off with that girl when he saw Ryu walk up to her. He could barely sense it, but it was there. That girl that his brother was talking to was a shinigami.

He instantly killed his presence and followed behind Ryu, fortunately the shinigami didn't seem to sense him and he managed to listen in on their entire conversation. From what he could gather, the shinigami had to step inside a gigai while having depleted powers, but what did that have to do with his brother? Ichigo could tell that Ryu's reiatsu had increased from before and it had become more potent. But he couldn't gather what a shinigami would want with Ryu if he was just a human with high enough reiryoku and was going as far as to interact with him.

Ichigo let loose a small sigh, these thoughts were getting him nowhere and the easiest way would be to ask the shinigami herself. But that would get her asking questions about how he knew about the afterlife. And he wouldn't want to reveal anything pertaining to the three factions. Sometimes diplomacy could be a bitch.

Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he watched the shinigami walked towards the site to his family was currently located.

 **-XXXX-**

Rukia watched as the Kurosaki family visited the grave of the departed mother. Waves of guilt ran through her and she had difficulty getting rid of them.

Ever since she had that conversation with Ryu she was beating herself up over what she said and not stopping from a clearly sensitive topic. Ryu didn't want to talk about it and that was clear, why she didn't see that was beyond her and she didn't know what to think right now.

Rukia was jolted from her thoughts from a _very_ distinct sound. It was a low nasally sound; it took a few moments to identify it as someone snoring. Rukia turned and identified a man sitting down while leaning against a tree, his physical features didn't concern her though.

What she was focused on, was the shihakusho that covered his body and the zanpakuto sheathed at his side. Rukia's eyes narrowed at the obvious form of a Shinigami leaning and resting against a tree.

The shinigami snorted before opening his eyes and glancing around, "Well this is embarrassing. I seemed to have fallen asleep."

Rukia scowled at the lax tone the shinigami spoke with, "Why are you here? Soul society shouldn't need to send a representative to check on me."

"Kuchiki Rukia," The shinigami drawled. "You're the adopted member of the Kuchiki clan of the four great noble clans. They call you the princess of Rukon you know, since you graduated the Shin'o academy so quickly."

"How do you-" Rukia's eyes narrowed in realization, "The Onmitsukido."

"Bingo." The shinigami said, "You're pretty bright, Kuchiki-sama. But the higher-ups are getting a little worried. You've been in the human world for quite a while, so they sent me in to check up on you. Much to my surprise, I find you in a Gigai." The shinigami put a hand on the sakkat, lowering over his eyes. "Now, why would that be? Perhaps you've discovered the pleasures of flesh? Or is it perhaps that you're too injured to fight? Or maybe it's because you _gave your powers to a human._ "

Rukia scowled and prepared to run in the opposite direction. The least she could do was draw this shinigami away from Ryu's family and send a couple of Kido at him.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu stared at his mother's grave as he began to think about the resident shinigami that had given him her powers.

Kuchiki Rukia.

The raven haired woman had once again stuck her nose into business that didn't concern her. She just _had_ to bring up that old wound with her stupid hollow bullshit. It was something that set him off, not in a good way either.

Honestly you'd think she'd be a little more sensitive, after all she apologized for it last-

Ryu's thoughts were interrupted from the feeling of the hairs on the back of his neck standing up straight. Ryu glanced around at the familiar sensation. This feeling always appeared when he was about to be attacked, so why was it appearing now?

Then he began to feel something, it was a foreign pressure that reminded him of.

Rukia.

With absolutely no hesitation, he sprinted towards the source of the pressure to find the shinigami that lived in his closet.

 **-XXXX-**

When Ryu arrived on the scene, it was a less than ideal sight. Rukia was being attacked by a lazy looking man with a sakkat covering his head. At least, Ryu thought he was a man, before he noticed the black kosode and hakama with white lining.

' _Shinigami'_ Ryu was curious as to why the man was attacking her. They were both Shinigami weren't they? So why would one attack the other while they were in a gigai?

Ryu shook his head to clear it as he ran towards the two shinigami.

"Hey." Both of them turned, the shinigami raised an eyebrow as he turned towards the teen and rested his sword on his shoulder in a lazy fashion. Rukia's ivory skin lost color as she paled; of _all times_ to come back it had to be _now?_ "Don't you know that it's rude to attack a girl with something as dangerous as a Zanpakuto?"

The shinigami's brow raised higher as the teen spoke, "Well, kid I was a little surprised that you could see me." The shinigami spoke as he completely disregarded Ryu's last statement. "But I'm even more surprised that you know what this sword is… Tell me, what is it that you do for a living kid?"

Ryu's eyes narrowed at the prospect of being called a child, pride warring with combat instincts. After a brief moment, pride won out. "My name is Kurosaki Ryu, and I'm a substitute shinigami."

The shinigami clicked his tongue as he stared back at Rukia, "My my Kuchiki-sama." The shinigami's head lowered with his sakkat covering his eyes. "You really have put me in a pickle here. What will I do? Should I kill the human that you gave your powers to? Or should I turn you in for committing a crime punishable by execution?"

Both Rukia and Ryu scowled at the shinigami's threat, Ryu opened his mouth to ask what the hell he was talking about. But both were silenced when a foreign Reiatsu descended on their shoulders.

"You know." A familiar voice spoke as Ryu and Rukia turned, revealing the orange-haired teen that was Ryu's twin brother walking out from behind a tree. "Ordinarily I would've turned a blind eye to this. The battles between shinigami don't really concern me." The pressure intensified as Ichigo's eyes began to glow blue. "But since you just threatened my brother… I'm afraid that I'll have to get involved with this."

The shinigami's smirk widened as he lowered his zanpakuto from his shoulder. "Brother huh? So did Kuchiki-sama transfer powers to you too?"

Ichigo remained silent, intent on not giving the shinigami any leeway. "So you're not gonna tell me?" The shinigami asked, "A shame, guess I'll have to beat it outta you."

Snapping out of her daze, Rukia snatched the gokon tekko from her backpack and slammed her hand into the back of Ryu's head. The substitute responded by yanking his large sword from its sheath and charging the shinigami. When he was in reach he swung horizontally, but missed as the shinigami leaped over his enormous blade.

"You should really work to conceal your presence." Ryu's eyes widened as the shinigami spoke from behind him. Before he could turn in time, Ryu heard a clang of steel meeting steel. The substitute finally turned to meet the sight of his elder twin brother blocking the strike of the shinigami with a single sword.

Ryu jumped back as his brother repelled the shinigami and swung twice to deter him. With a separation between the opponents, Ryu allowed himself to be distracted by his brother. He had discarded the suit for a sleeveless black leather shirt that was neither too tight, nor too loose and a pair of long black pants, he had also put on a pair of black leather gloves. Despite the change in attire, what really drew his attention was the sword in his hand. It was a curved white short blade that was clearly designed to be used for one hand. The weapon had a black triangle and a yin-yang insignia near the top of the hilt.

Despite its plain appearance, Ryu had to admit that the blade was beautiful, the. His mind was distracted by how fast his brother had moved. In an instant he had been in between him and the shinigami. How and when did he-

Ryu's thoughts were cut off as the shinigami leaped in their direction once more, intent on scoring a hit. Ichigo blocked the strike once again and Ryu responded by charging forward and swinging out, the shinigami leaped over his strike and swung at their backs once again.

Not one to be fooled for the same trick twice, Ryu spun and met the shinigami's blade with his own. However, he was filled with the urge that his sword was weaker than the shinigami's in front of his. But that was absurd; the bigger blade would've clearly been more durable.

So why did it feel like his sword was going to break?

Ryu was once again interrupted as Ichigo dashed past him and the shinigami was forced back by the strike of his brother. Not wanting to let up on the pressure, Ryu charged and attacked the shinigami who once again dodged. Ryu felt slight amounts of irritation as the shinigami always managed to dodge his attacks, were his strikes really that predictable?

The shinigami countered by swinging his sword down, intent on cutting off his opponent's arm. He was interrupted by the presence of one Kurosaki Ichigo who once again blocked his strike. Before a second sword materialized into his hand and he countered with his own horizontal slash.

Ryu's eyes widened at the second sword that had simply _appeared_ in his brother's hand. The second blade was nearly identical to the white one, instead its base color was black and it was covered in a faint hexagonal pattern. Other than that, it was nearly identical to the white blade in his right hand.

The shinigami leapt back, but he didn't dodge all the way. He escaped with a small cut on his chest; the shinigami raised an eyebrow at the human in front of him.

The three combatants stood in silence for a few moments before the shinigami tensed and raised his sword to the side, then he leaped forward and struck down on Ichigo. Said human blocked with the white sword and countered with the black one. The shinigami leaped back again, but Ichigo remained in pursuit, thrusting the black blade towards the heart of the shinigami. The shinigami maneuvered to the side and struck out again. This repeated for several minutes, with the shinigami attacking and Ichigo parrying and countering. Both Ryu and Rukia watched as the two continued through their battle… no, battle couldn't describe the phenomena in front of them; it was more like a dance. Each collision of steel like a kiss as shinigami and human continued to fight with everything they had.

They finally separated once again and the shinigami held his blade low to the ground. "Hey human, what's your name?"

Ichigo lowered his swords and answered, "Kurosaki Ichigo."

The shinigami smirked, "'Strawberry' huh? Cute name."

A tic mark appeared on Ichigo's forehead as the shinigami spoke, "It doesn't mean strawberry!" He yelled, "'Ichi' means 'one', 'go' means 'protect!' So my name means 'one protector!'"

"Right," the shinigami spoke after Ichigo finished his rant "My bad, anyway, Ichigo. We should probably finish this up eh?"

Ichigo's face shifted back into his neutral scowl as he raised both swords along with the shinigami in front of him. The two narrowed their eyes at one another as they prepared to strike, only to be interrupted by several high-pitched beeps.

Rukia Reacted with speed that only a spirit possessed, and whipped out her daireishinki and flipped it open. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

"Ryu!" Said teen whipped his head in her direction. "There's a powerful hollow nearby, right next to your family!"

Ryu's eyes widened before they narrowed and he turned and sprinted in the direction of his sisters. Ichigo glanced in the direction of his twin before directing his gaze back at the shinigami.

"We'll finish this later." With that said, he turned and sprinted in the direction that Ryu ran in. Both swords gripped tightly. Rukia opened her mouth to call out to the Kurosaki twins, before shaking her head and running after them.

The shinigami stood and watched all of this, his sakkat lowering over his eyes once again as a single thought ran through his mind.

' _Man, what do I do now?'_

 **-XXXX-**

Ichigo and Rukia ran for several seconds before they finally caught up to Ryu, their eyes widened at the sight they were coming up to. Yuzu was underneath the foot of a hollow while Karin was in its grasp. Ryu was running at the hollow in an attempt to free his sisters

The hollow itself wasn't the largest hollow they encountered, but it was still several feet tall than Ichigo. Its entire body was covered in brown fur and its hands and feet were pink in color and had the distinct shape of a bird's limbs. The mask it wore resembled a Tiki mask and it had a strange lure like appendage jutting out of its head.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes as he jumped from his position and vanished. Ryu continued running and raised his sword. Ichigo reappeared and both Kurosaki brothers struck the hollows hand that fell limply to the earth, severed from the arm. Ryu caught Karin before she hit the ground.

The hollow roared in pain before it stepped back off Yuzu, whom Ichigo grabbed and vanished once again. Ryu set Karin gently on the earth before standing up and glaring at the hollow.

Then Ryu noticed something, the lure appendage of the hollow looked a lot like, _the girl he had seen six years ago_.

"Grand Fisher," Ryu turned and stared at Rukia's statement, "A hollow that has managed to evade the soul society for fifty years. He attacks souls by drawing them close with his lure and attacks when they least expect it, and his most common targets, _are women_."

Ryu's eyes widened as he briefly remembered the flash of pink, it was blurry but he could barely make out a bird shaped appendage and a ball of brown fur.

Ryu's reiatsu spiked in rage as the glare he was directing at the hollow intensified to scorching levels, all the while the tiki masked hollow continued to smirk.

 **AN: Sorry if this seems like a bad place to end it, I just thought that this chapter was being dragged on a little too long. I was planning to write all the way to the end of the grand fisher battle. But I think that this should be enough.**

 **So, in this chapter we got a look at Ichigo's powers and his ability as a swordsman, if you know what swords Ichigo is using leave a review or PM me. Also it looks like he knows something about the three factions. What could that mean hm? You'll find out in the next few chapters, or will you?**

 **Now onto a more serious note, the reason why I've been so late in updating isn't due to laziness or procrastination. I've been dealing with a lot of depression these past few days due to some family issues. Please don't ask. I hope that all of you understand if I don't have a lot of motivation to write as I've lost a lot of confidence in how I format this thing. In addition, I apologize to those of you that follow this story and saw an email for chapter 5. I accidentally uploaded a half-finished version and promptly removed it.**

 **EDIT: So with this chapter done, we're FINALLY done with the hiatus. I want to thank you all for your patience in this matter and I hope that I haven't kept you waiting for too long. I'm not sure when chapter six will be released, but I hope that all of you will look forward to it.**

 **Anyway, please review and tell me what you thought and what I could improve on. And if you liked this story, then please follow or maybe favorite it. The chapters will come out quicker if you do.**


	6. Chapter 6: Red and White

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC.**

Ryu could barely contain his rage, or his excitement for that matter.

It took six years, but he had finally found the one that had killed her, the one that had taken the life that he had cared about the most in this dark and cruel world, his mother's killer. Few people knew this, but Ryu cared more about his mother, as she was the first memory he had, her smiling face. Ryu didn't remember anything before that, just voices and a feeling of being cold and wet.

Thus, it was understandable that he was struck with grief when she died. But he knew, even in his child-mind he knew, that she hadn't died because of an accident, his mother had been killed.

That was the reason why his grief had turned to rage, why he had pushed himself to the point of collapse while training for karate. This was his sole purpose in life, the only thing that gave him a modicum of resolve.

He would avenge the death of Kurosaki Masaki, his mother.

That was before his father approached him while he was staring out on the horizon, it was just after Ichigo had been sent to a boarding school in Italy. He was mad, his older twin, the one whom he admired was sent off to a place that none of them could reach.

When his father approached him, his crying sisters weren't far behind. It was then that he learned that in his pursuit for vengeance that he had forgotten about the people he cared about. He also learned that what he thought was rage at his mother's killer, was in reality, rage at himself. Ryu then swore, with his crying sisters in his arms, that he'd never let his quest for revenge consume him. That he'd look after those he cared about while looking for her killer.

He forgot all of that the instant he came to face the hollow in front of him.

Ryu felt his hand tighten on the hilt of his sword to the point of it almost being painful. He didn't care though; this hollow in front of him had killed his mom.

With no thought to his actions, he charged the hollow and swung his sword down in blind fury. Grand fisher in response grabbed his blade and tossed it to the side, sending Ryu flying through the woods before he collided and scraped across the ground.

"Ryu!" He heard Rukia yell and her footsteps sprinting in his direction. "Disintegrate! You black dog of rondanini! Look upon yourse-"

" _DON'T INTERFERE!"_

Rukia was stunned out of her chanting by the voice of the very black/red haired teen that she was trying to help.

"This is my fight."

Before Rukia could argue, Grand Fisher landed in front of both of them, his tiki mask in its ever-present smirk. Ryu, standing up with the support of his sword, glared across at the giant hollow.

"You were there, six years ago." He snarled before raising his sword and charging at the fur covered hollow. Who once again caught his sword and punched him away, Ryu once again tumbling across the clearing.

" **Six years ago?"** The hollow sounded amused, **"I'm afraid I can't remember that far back. I don't remember seeing you at all."**

"SHUT UP!" Ryu bellowed as he once again stood and charged at the hollow that continued to smirk despite the enraged teenager charging at him sword swinging.

" **It's pointless."** Grand fisher spoke as he once again caught Ryu's blade. **"Don't you know?"** The hollow asked as his claws extended from his fingers and pierced Ryu's chest. **"Anger dulls your sword."**

Rukia barely managed to restrain herself from calling out at seeing the substitute's injuries. She constantly reminded herself that she couldn't interfere; this was a battle for Ryu's pride and the pride of his mother. That's why she couldn't fight alongside him, he was fighting to make peace with the death of his mother, and she shouldn't interfere with something like that.

That was why she held herself back, because this wasn't a battle for life, it was a battle for Ryu's pride, and the pride of his mother.

A sudden realization came over the hollow's eyes as the claws retracted themselves back into Grand fisher's hand. Ryu coughed up blood from the various wounds in his chest and fell back. Despite this, he never dropped his sword. Rukia wanted to call out to him, to tell him to stop fighting. She didn't know why she wanted this so badly, but she did.

" **Now I remember."** Grand fisher spoke after several minutes of silence. **"You were that boy by the river with that much spiritual pressure."** Ryu scowled as grand fisher raised his hand to the lure. **"I could've just eaten you and become stronger, but there was something about that woman that just made her…** _ **delectable**_ **."**

Grand fisher wrapped his hand around the lure before taking it away, revealing the face of _Masaki Kurosaki_.

Ryu's eyes widened as he saw the form of his mother, draped in a white shawl, staring at him directly. **"Do you know why I've managed to evade the soul society for fifty years?"** Grand fisher asked rhetorically **"It's because of those claws, when I pierced you with them, they showed me your memories, and along with that,** _ **your most precious person**_ **."**

Grand fisher's smirk seemed to grow as he continued to speak, **"Everyone, even shinigami have a person that they could never cut. That's why I've been able to elude soul society for over fifty years. I show the people sent to hunt me the image of the person they can never cut and I take my time killing them."**

Ryu's eyes narrowed as he charged at Grand fisher with his sword prepared to swing; he stopped however, when the image of his mother swept in front of him.

"Ryu, dear, what's wrong? Won't you tell your mother what ails you?" Ryu's eyes narrowed in obvious conflict, before the hairs on the back of his neck stood up straight. His body tensed as he leapt back, barely avoiding the pink, clawed hand. But he didn't get away completely; the pink claw tore away the bangs of his hair covering his left eye. Reyu responded by slamming his hand over his eye.

" **Hm… Seems like there's something you don't like about that eye of yours. Could it be that you're ashamed to bear** _ **that?"**_ Ryu's visible eye narrowed as he slowly stood up straight.

"What makes you think something like that?" Ryu asked with a low tone, "I'm not ashamed to bear it, after all, it only serves as a reminder…" Ryu slowly took away his hand, "That I was never strong enough."

Rukia's own eyes widened as she stared at Ryu's left eye, she had always wondered why he hid it, but now she had her real answer.

It was because of the jagged scar that stopped just above his cheek.

"This was how I knew that mom didn't die because of an accident, because I didn't get away unscathed." Ryu narrowed both of his eyes as he spoke. "I knew, that something had killed her, I knew that because of my weakness that she died, and I knew that I could no longer be weak, for the sake of my friends and family I needed to be strong." His grip on his sword tightened as he continued to speak. "I swore, that I would become the strongest, so that I could both protect my friends, and avenge the ones that have fallen." A faint red outline surrounded Ryu as he continued to talk. "I'm both a protector and an avenger, I will kill you for both the death of my mother and to stop you from harming anyone else, for the sake of my mom… and for the sake of my friends… I WILL DEFEAT YOU!"

With his last statement said the red light that surrounded Ryu began to condense and swirl around his left arm. A green jewel appeared on the back of his left hand as a scaled and clawed gauntlet materialized onto his left hand. Ryu yelled out as the gauntlet finished it's materialization.

 **[Dragon Booster!]**

The jewel on the back of the gauntlet began to shine as an unknown symbol appeared into it.

 **[Boost!]**

Ryu gripped his sword with both of his hands as his eyes once again began to glow red. Grand fisher noticed a change in his eyes, there was no longer the blind fury that they were previously filled with, and instead there was calm resolve.

Ryu had finally remembered what he was fighting for.

 **[Boost!]** With a cry of war Ryu charged, intent on defeating the opponent in front of him. Grand fisher once again caught his sword, but instead of getting away without a scratch, Grand fisher had a long cut on his hand.

 **[Boost!]** Grand fisher began to frown before he smirked once again as the image of Ryu's mother floated in front of him. But soon it fell limp, cut by an unseen enemy.

"You dare to not only take the life of our mother but also take her guise." Grand fisher's eyes widened as his smirk quickly melted away to a frown as he stared at the form of an orange haired boy holding two curved weapons. The boy slowly turned, revealing his glowing blue eyes, "I'll kill you."

Instantly, a white outline surrounded Ichigo as it condensed on his back. Rukia withheld a gasp as she stared at what had materialized on the back of Ryu's elder twin.

Wings, a pair of large white wings seemingly made of light.

Ichigo shot forward and slammed his fist into Grand fisher's mask before the hollow could react. The wings on Ichigo's back glowed as they spurred to life.

 **[Divide!]**

Grand fisher's eyes widened as he felt a large portion of his powers vanish and the reiatsu of the boy in front of him spike. The hollow was stunned at the powers that the two humans demonstrated it was almost as i-

 **[Explosion!]**

Grand fisher's thoughts were interrupted as the Ryu's reiatsu spiked, and his eyes widened as he realized that Ryu's reiatsu was _higher than his own_.

With a war cry, Ryu wretched his blade free from Grand fisher's grasp and drove it directly into the hollow's shoulder. Grand fisher yelled out in pain as he felt the steel of the zanpakuto sink into his shoulder. He barely managed to yank the blade out and jump back as Ichigo slashed his left arm off.

 **[Divide!]**

Grand fisher felt something stir deep within his soul, something that he hadn't felt in well over fifty years, something instinctual and something he thought he lost a long time ago.

He felt fear.

A deep fear that only surfaced in the presence of these two humans, his entire body was paralyzed as he stared at the two humans slowly making their way towards him. Grand fisher's eyes widened as he realized that he had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no face to hide behind.

He was going to die.

With that realization he jumped into the air and sent all of his fur at the two humans in an attempt to pierce and take them down with him.

"Futile." Ichigo spoke as he easily flew up in Grand fisher's mask before vanishing and reappearing behind him and kicking the hollow to the ground

 **[Divide!]**

Grand fisher felt despair as he fell down to Ryu's blade, he didn't even have time to scream as the large sword cut through the mask like a hot knife through butter. His body fell to the earth as it slowly began to dissipate into small blue particles.

 **[Reset!]**

Ryu stabbed his sword into the earth as he panted heavily. The glow in his eyes fading away, as he slowly stared up at the fading corpse of the hollow he just killed. His eyes widened as the faint image of his mother appeared before them. She smiled before walking forward and hugging Ryu, before she vanished. Ryu stared at the sky in shock before he gave a small smile.

' _Goodbye, Mom.'_

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu and Ichigo stared at their mother's grave. Watching as the rain fell onto their heads, the two standing in content silence.

Then Ryu broke it, "So you're telling me that the gauntlet I used earlier was called a Sacred Gear and it's a power created by the god of the bible." Ichigo nodded with a grunt, "And that god, angels, and devils really exist and they fought a huge war a couple centuries ago with another group called the Fallen Angel's Grigori." Another nod. "And that you're a part of one of these 'Three factions' and you also have a sacred gear that's the exact opposite to mine."

"Yeah." Ichigo confirmed, "Both of ours are special sacred gears, they're apart of 15 Longinus." Ryu turned to Ichigo with a raised eyebrow.

"What's so different about our sacred gears compared to others?"

"Because ours have the _ability to kill gods_."

Ryu's eyes widened before he realized something, "Wait, _gods?_ I thought you said there was only one _god_."

Ichigo smirked as he turned to his younger twin, "I never said that." Ryu scowled before he turned back to the grave of his mother. Ichigo's face became serious again as he stared at the grave along with Ryu. "The world of the supernatural is _far_ bigger than just shinigami and hollows Ryu. There's so much that you haven't seen, so much you've yet to learn… but we're getting off topic." Ryu turned back to Ichigo. "You wanted to know about our sacred gears right?" Ryu nodded as Ichigo gained a distant look in his eyes. "To think that you'd get _that_ …" He mumbled with a bitter smile.

"You say something?"

"Nothing important." _'He doesn't need to know… Not yet at least.'_ "Anyway, yours is a mid-tier Longinus called Boosted Gear, or the Red Dragon Emperor's gauntlet. It's power is as follows, it will double your power every ten seconds without limit upon activation."

Ryu's eyes widened as he stared down at the palm of his left hand. "How do I summon it again?"

"You've already activated it, just imagine that it's there and it'll appear."

Ryu did as he was told and the familiar red-scaled gauntlet appeared over his left hand with a cry of **[Dragon Booster!]**

Ryu flexed his fingers before nodding and staring back at Ichigo. "So what about yours?" He asked.

"Mine is called Divine Dividing." Ichigo spoke as a familiar white light appeared behind him and the white wings that Ryu had seen before condensed onto his twin's back. "Also known as the White Dragon Emperor's Wings, and like I said, it's the opposite to yours, when I make physical contact with an enemy, I steal half of their power every ten seconds and add it to my own."

Ryu nodded before turning back to examining the Boosted Gear, before turning back to his elder twin. "By the way… Where were you when I started fighting Grand fisher?"

Ichigo dismissed Divine Dividing and turned to his younger twin. "I was taking Yuzu and Karin somewhere safe. That hollow might've taken them after beating you to a pulp."

Ryu dismissed the Boosted Gear and looked to the ground, having the decency to at least look sheepish.

"Anyway, I've gotta head back to Italy pretty soon, I'm gonna receive another assignment." Ichigo spoke after several moments of silence.

"That won't be necessary, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo and Ryu turned to meet the image of an effeminate man with long blond hair. He was wearing a black suit with a white collared, button-up shirt complete with a bright yellow tie; he was holding a black umbrella in his left hand that shielded him from the rain.

Ichigo made a noise of surprise as his eyes widened. "Michael-san!"

Ryu glanced between Ichigo and the blond haired man. "You know him, Ichigo?"

Ichigo nodded, "He's my boss. Michael, one of the four great seraphs and the last surviving archangel, the leader of heaven."

Ryu's eyes widened as he glanced once again between the two men.

"Haha. You need not refer to me with such formality, Ichigo-kun. Anyway, I've come to deliver your next assignment." Michael's expression became serious. "We of heaven have reason to believe that the Devils and the Fallen will seek a foothold in this area and that they may target your brother. Your assignment is to remain in Karakura town and watch over them."

Ichigo's eyes widened as he came to realize what that meant. "You mean… I get to stay with my family?" Michael nodded his in conformation with a small smile. Ichigo smiled as he quickly spoke to the leader of Heaven, "Thank you… Michael-san."

Michael merely nodded again before turning to Ryu, his face once again turned serious as he glanced back to Ichigo, a secret conversation seemed to pass between the angel and the human as they turned away to face Ryu.

"Ryu, I think it'd be best if you didn't use that gauntlet unless you need to." Ichigo spoke and Ryu's eyes widened.

"What? Why?"

"The power of the sekiryutei is great," Michael spoke, "So great that many would kill to obtain that power, and if they couldn't obtain it, then they'd kill the wielder. It is inevitable that you will be targeted, which is why both of us believe that it would be beneficial if you didn't wield that power unless absolutely necessary, Ryu-kun." Ryu looked to the ground as he began to think about what Michael and Ichigo said. "That being said…" Ryu looked up as Michael began to speak once more, "Even if you do supress that power, you will still be targeted, perhaps you should gain additional training… Ichigo-kun, could you train your brother?"

Ichigo nodded as he turned towards Ryu with a smirk on his face that sent shivers down the younger twin's spine.

"Good, now then, Kuchiki-san." Ryu's eyes widened as Rukia stepped out from behind a tree overlooking their position. "I would appreciate it if this conversation never left this location, could you keep this seceret from your superiors?"

Rukia hesitated before giving a reluctant nod. Michael nodded back before walking up to Ichigo and handing him the umbrella, Ichigo's eyes widened when his hand came into contact with the item.

"Keep it safe, Ichigo-kun." Michael whispered, Ichigo nodded in response before Michael turned and walked away. "Stay safe, and be careful, all of you."

Everyone nodded at the words of the archangel before a golden circle opened up beneath him and he sunk into the floor. Ryu's and Rukia's eye's widened while Ichigo remained unfazed.

"Teleportation Magic, basic spell that all Angels, Fallen, and Devils can use."

Ryu quickly shook his head before glancing up at the clearing sky, rays of sunset peeking over the horizon.

"Rukia." Said raven-haired shinigami turned her gaze towards her substitute. "Let me be a shinigami for a little while longer."

Rukia let a small smile appear before giving a nod with a curt "Sure."

Ichigo closed his umbrella and turned to the direction the hill fell. "C'mon, Ryu."

Ryu turned to face the orange haired exorcist. "Let's go home."

Ryu nodded before turning and following his elder twin down the hill. Rukia stared at their retreating backs and as she kept her small smile on her face.

"You know that you won't be able to run forever."

Rukia turned to come face to face with the shinigami that Ryu and Ichigo fought earlier, who she came to learn was named Eikichiro Saido. Rukia turned back to the two retreating humans with the small smile remaining.

"That may be true, but I'm going to stay here."

Saido nodded behind Rukia, before turning and walking away. With little else to do, the raven-haired shinigami started to follow after her substitute and his twin brother.

 **-XXXX-**

Unknown to the three, two individuals watched the three as they walked back to their home from the safety of the rooftops.

Both were female, one was sitting on the edge while swinging her feet in a childinsh manner, she had short blond hair and amber eyes, she wore a black tube top that barely contained her… Assets and a black bikini bottom, she also wore leggings that didn't cover her thighs all the way and knee high brown boots. The other was standing behind her with a straight back and a cautious stance, she had long black hair and bright red eyes, she was wearing an outfit similar to a high-school uniform with the addition of red gauntlets. She held a sheathed katana at her side.

"Ne, Akame." The blond one spoke, "Taicho's gotten pretty weak hasn't he?"

Akame began walking forward and staring at the three, "It cannot be helped, it seems as though he's forgotten, Leone."

Leone's face melted into a smile, "But that's why we're here right? To help him remember." Leone snickered, "Ne, Akame, when he remembers are you gonna be as submissive as you were back then?" Akame scowled, a light blush being the only thing that betrayed her embarassment, "You were all, Taicho-sama, what should I do? Taicho-sama, are you sick?"

Leone snickered once again at Akame's red face. Akame huffed as her blush faded abruptly.

"We should head back, we have to finalize our transfer after all."

Leone's smile remained as she stood up and walked towards her friend, the two nodded to each other as they ran and jumped along the rooftops towards an unknown location.

 **AN: So, this is chapter six. Now you know partially why I call this story 'Dragon Death God' and before all of you get on my case about this being an Issei-replacement and Vali-replacement fic. Allow me to inform you that it isn't. If you noticed, I said 15 Longinus instead of 13. That's because I've created two new Longinus of my own design. I'm not going to tell you what they are specifically, but here are their names:**

 **Issei's is called Elemental Genesis.**

 **Vali's is called Abyss Break.**

 **You may think and speculate their abilities at your leasure, now, on to different matters. I want to know something from you guys, this is obviously going to be a Harem fic, and I want to know if you want to see Rias in Issei's, Ichigo's or Ryu's? I've already decided on other girls and I've got them all planned out. So what're your thoughts? There's a poll on my profile that's going up around the same time as this chapter, so go and vote!**

 **Please leave a Review and tell me what you thought about this chapter, like what you liked and what you think I could improve on. If you like this story than be sure to follow it so that you know when new chapters are going to be released. And if you like it quite a lot than please favorite it, it would mean a lot to me to know that my readers actually like the story.**


	7. Chapter 7: First Training and Transfers

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC**

"Come on, Ryu! I know you've got more than that!"

Ryu panted heavily as he glared across at his twin brother. He had been at this all morning on his weekend, and during the afternoons after school for the past week. He tossed aside the shattered bokken and stared at his brother intently. Ichigo set down his dual blades and held his hand outwards

" _Trace on."_

In a flash of blue light, a second bokken appeared in his outstretched hand. Ichigo tossed the wooden blade to his brother, whom caught it and set about the exercise that he had been at for the past six days.

 _Flashback: one day after the battle with Grand fisher._

Ryu yawned as he walked alongside his brother, it was the weekend and his father _still_ got him up early. Ichigo capitalized on the opportunity to start training him. He was curious as to why Ichigo was starting it so soon, but when asked, the orange-head would merely wave off his questions.

The teen looked around at his surroundings, Ichigo had led them to an obscure clearing in a distant part of Karakura town. He came to a halt when Ichigo stopped in front of him and turned around. He was wearing that outfit that he wore when they fought Grand Fisher; he later discovered that it was the male version of an exorcist's uniform.

Ichigo turned around and locked eyes with his younger twin, "Before we start Ryu, you should know something. Now that you've unlocked the Boosted Gear you're going to be targeted by people among the three factions. Despite this there's a chance that we could seal the Boosted Gear away. You could still have a chance at a normal life. If that's what you want, then walk away now, if you're truly willing to surrender your normal life, then take this sword and pass this training."

Ichigo stuck his right hand out as green patterns ran themselves down his arm. _"Trace on."_

In a flash of blue light, an ordinary wooden bokken materialized into Ichigo's hands, now that Ryu wasn't in the heat of battle, he could afford to be shocked.

"How did-"

"'I do that?'" Ichigo smirked at Ryu's scowl, "I get that question a lot at the vatican. I'll tell you the full extent of my powers later, when you're ready." Ichigo thrust the tip of the bokken into the ground as his smirk faded.

Ryu was now faced with a decision, he could take the sword and abandon all pretense of a normal life, or he could take a chance and try and get a nor-.

"Who am I kidding?" Ryu smirked as he grabbed the handle of the bokken and pulled it out of the ground. "I've never been normal, and I know I never will be."

Ichigo smirked back as he held his hands out _"Trace on."_ A pair of european long swords appeared in his hands in a flash of light.

"This is your trial Ryu." Ichigo pointed his sword at the teen, "If you want to learn to fight against the members of the three factions, then you'll need to learn to really control that power of yours." Ryu raised an eyebrow in obvious inquiry. "I'll consider you having enough control when that bokken in your hand can take more than two hits from these swords."

Ryu stared at Ichigo like he was insane. "How will I be able to do that? It's not like I have any memory of controlling it."

Ichigo smirked, "You do, but it was only due to emotional stress." Ryu's eyes widened as he remembered the power surge through him at times where he was suddenly stronger. "This time you'll have to really learn how to control it. Reinforce that bokken with your reiryoku and I'll consider you having enough control to move on to stage 2."

Ryu stood forward and nodded, his stance rigid as he closed his eyes and tried to tap into his reiryoku, key word being _tried_. No matter how close he was to having it in his grasp, it always slipped out.

Ichigo sighed, he knew that Ryu had no experience in controlling reiryoku, but he didn't think it'd be _this_ bad.

' _We have a lot of work to do.'_

 _Flashback end_

That had been six days ago and Ryu had made progress, he could manage to at least channel his reiryoku down the wooden blade, he just couldn't get the right amount. Ichigo always broke the bokken with the second hit because the reiryoku was too small and it barely reinforced the bokken, or there was too much and it was too unfocused.

Ryu shook his head to clear the distracting thoughts before tapping into his reiatsu and focusing it through the wooden sword. Keeping it under control and yet putting enough so that it felt sturdy, Ryu nodded and charged his orange-haired mentor. He swung outwards in a horizontal slash that Ichigo parried and countered.

' _One.'_ Ichigo struck out with his second sword and the bokken shattered on contact. _'Two.'_

Ichigo sighed, it was progress, but it wasn't nearly as enough as Ryu would need to actually learn to _fight_. Some people would say that Ryu's focus should be increasing his brute force and sword style first and that he should learn control later on. Ichigo disagreed. While it was fine to have a lot of power, that power could be your undoing in a battle, especially if the opponent was stronger than you. Besides, Ryu already had power; he just needed control to bring out the best of his abilities.

"Okay, let's take a break."

Ryu nodded before throwing the broken handle aside and walking to a tree. Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he saw Ryu stagger slightly, maybe they'd also have to work on stamina. After all, Ryu had less of it in his body than his spirit, which ran on spiritual power as opposed to natural energy. If he wanted to use the Boosted gear to its fullest while in his body, then Ryu will have to work on improving his natural stamina.

Ichigo sighed before dismissing the two longswords and running a hand through his hair. There was a _lot_ to work on, Ryu could fight, and he had _monstrous_ amounts of reiryoku; but he had little control over it, and the concentration that he used to control it wasn't practical in the heat of battle. Ryu would have to keep practicing until controlling reiatsu would be like breathing to him.

Deciding that he had enough standing around, Ichigo moved towards his brother, who was leaning against the tree while drinking from a water bottle. At the sound of approaching footsteps, Ryu looked up to see his elder twin walking towards him, his neutral scowl in place. Ryu stared at him with both eyes visible; he had taken to keep his hair short after the battle with grand fisher, which of course, drew questions from his friends and classmates. He waved them off by saying it was from an accident he suffered as a kid, not the whole truth.

The sad part was, that wasn't entirely a lie either.

"Ryu." Said teen was brought out from his thoughts by the orange-haired exorcist in front of him, "You need a _lot_ of work, so much that I don't think that we can cover it all in the schedule I have set up." Ryu raised an eyebrow; Ichigo had a schedule? "Which is why, I'm going to have you do a little practice on your own. Every night, I want you to take a paper and channel your Reiryoku in it to the point where you can't rip it. This'll help your concentration, as well as your control."

Ryu nodded as Ichigo spoke the last sentence before looking up at the sky, it was still early in the day, but that didn't mean that it wasn't sunday, both of them would have school tomorrow.

Ichigo smirked as he remembered the first day that he walked into Ryu's class.

 _Flashback_

Ryu sighed as he waved off another wave of concerns from the person that sat behind him. What was his name again? He didn't really remember. The entire class had taken notice of his shortened bangs and that they paid _special_ attention to the scar that ran down his left eye.

Ryu dodged questions from his friends every time they enquired him, or he gave an excuse that he was in an accident when he was younger. Thankfully, Orihime seemed to buy it, Tatsuki was a little suspicious, but nodded anyway, Chad just nodded (Ryu felt pretty bad lying to a friend that he considered a brother), Keigo and Mizuiro bought it with a little concern, but he waved it off.

The ringing of the bell and the voice of his teacher jolted Ryu from his thoughts.

"Class, today we have a new student transferring here from Italy, make sure to make him feel welcome." Ochi-sensei then turned to the door, "You can come in now!"

With a small 'click' the door opened and the footsteps of a tall young man sounded throughout the room, the instant Ryu caught sight of a head of bright orange hair, he slammed his face against his desk.

' _Goddamn it.'_ He sighed, _'Why did you have to transfer_ here _?'_

The teen turned around before grabbing a piece of chalk and writing the kanji of his name on the board. "Yo, my name's Kurosaki Ichigo. Nice to meet everyone." Ichigo spoke with a scowl all too reminiscent of a certain red/black haired teen.

Ichigo surveyed the classroom and smirked when his eyes locked with Ryu's, the teen in question scowled at his elder twin before turning out the window, to which Ichigo snorted before slipping back into his neutral scowl when the teacher told him he could sit in front of Ryu.

 _Time skip: Lunch_

"THIS IS BULLSHIT!" Ryu sighed in his place next to Orihime, Rukia, Ichigo, Chad and Mizuiro. Keigo had just come out to the roof and screamed the instant he saw Ryu sitting next to his friends. "Why do I have friends that _always_ get popular with girls? It makes it hard normal guys like myself to get a girlfriend!"

Keigo lurched forward as a foot connected to his back, "Maybe if you were a little quieter, it'd be easier for you."

Ryu glanced upward to meet the irritated scowl of one of his childhood friends, "Hey, Tatsuki."

"Hello, Arisawa-san."

"Tatsuki-chan!"

"Hm."

Tatsuki nodded to each of them as she stepped forward and sat in front of the black/red haired teen that was casually eating a bento. Then turning to the orange haired teen sitting next to him eating in the _exact_ same manner. Tatsuki sweatdropped.

' _They're definitely twins, identical at that.'_ "You never told me that Ichigo would be transferring here, Ryu." Tatsuki spoke.

"Eh? Tatsuki-chan knows Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked.

"Yeah, he would spar with me sometimes." Tatsuki smirked, "I remember he would cry _every_ time I knocked him down."

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched and he briefly considered tracing kanshou and bakuya to whack the girl with. Then he remembered that this wasn't the vatican and Tatsuki wasn't Dulio.

Ryu smirked along with his childhood friend before Ichigo gained a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Inoue, I honestly believe that you're _way_ out of my brother's league."

Ryu's smirk instantly vanished as he grabbed Ichigo's blazer and walked away, his bangs shadowing his eyes. Leaving a blushing Orihime, a fuming Tatsuki and an angry yet confused Rukia.

 _Flashback end_

Ichigo smirked again; sometimes he understood what it was like to mess with someone, now he knew why Yoruichi-san liked to tease him sometimes.

Ryu glanced over to his elder twin out of the corner of his eye and sighed at his smirk, despite abandoning his normal life at the beginning of this training, sometimes he missed it.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu yawned as he barely managed to keep awake, the training at night keeping him from getting any sleep. He managed to keep the paper from ripping apart for around ten minutes, but that didn't mean he had enough control to measure out the reiatsu it took to solidify the bokken yet. That didn't even compare to the nightmares.

Ryu frowned as he remembered _those_ ; they had just started out after he gained the Boosted Gear. It was never anything clear, just shouting, blurred silhouettes, and blood spurting from the wound before it became clear that the blood was on _his hands_.

"You okay?"

Ryu jumped and prepared to summon the Boosted Gear before he turned and saw Chad standing next to him with a worried glint in his visible eye. Ryu shot him a reassuring smile.

"I'm fine Chad, just a little tired."

Chad looked at him for a moment longer in concern before turning away as the teacher walked in and all of them moved to sit down, save Ryu and Ichigo who were already seated.

"Class, today we'll have two new transfer students joining us, be sure to make them feel welcome." The teacher turned towards the door, "You can come in now!"

The door slid open once again as two girls walked in, Ryu's eyes widened at their appearances.

The first one walked with a confident yet cautious stance, no wasted movement in her steps. She was surrounded by an air of both dignity and confidence. She had flowing black hair that reached her waist in length and bright red eyes that seemed to take in all of her surroundings. The karakura high uniform fit her body in a snug fashion, showing her womanly curves and her long legs.

The other was the exact opposite; she walked with her hands behind her head and a large easygoing grin on her face as her heavy steps echoes throughout the classroom. Her shart blond hair was messy and two locks hung down the sides of her face. The karakura high uniform clung _very_ tightly to her body, in fact, several were undone and the ribbon was absent, showing off a bit of her generous cleavage.

In short, both women were beautiful in their own right. Ryu wouldn't be surprised if Keigo was drooling with hearts over his eyes as he oogled the blond woman.

"Ladies, can you introduce yourselves to the class?"

The black haired woman turned and eyed every student down with scrutiny. Each student (sans Keigo) squirmed under the piercing red-eyed gaze before her eyes landed on Ryu, who instantly fell down on his desk as a migraine instantly pierced through his skull.

" _Taicho-sama, is there something wrong?"_

 _Ryu turned toward the voice of one of his most loyal subordinates before looking away._

" _It's nothing.. I'm just thinking."_

 _The little girl tilted her head, "About what, Taicho-sama?"_

 _Ryu smiled as he stared out at the sunset, "Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually doing what's right, if I'm actually fulfilling my purpose of enacting Justice on this cruel world, and if we're giving our all to give it everything we've got."_

 _The little girl walked up to stand next to him, "I don't really know what you're talking about, but I think that what Taicho-sama is doing is right. Taicho-sama is brave and sometimes foolish, but Taicho-sama is kind, and he never stops believing in us."_

 _Ryu smiled before turning around, "Let's head back, the other's will be worried."_

 _The little girl nodded before turning back and following behind him._

Ryu gasped as he shot upwards, his eyes glancing to discover that he had been taken to the nurse's office.

"You're awake." Ryu turned and came face to face with a neutral faced Ichigo. "You passed out in the middle of class when those girls walked in, lot of people were scared, few of 'em were worried."

Ryu nodded before looking down at his hands, what was that? That little girl… had that been a memory of when he was younger? Ryu scowled, it didn't make any sense. None of it did.

"Well, glad to see you're awake."

Ryu glanced up to see the blond transfer student saunter into the room with that ever-present easygoing smile.

"Name's Leone, I transferred here along with the girl that made you faint."

Ryu's eyes narrowed as he looked at his hands, that memory… Who was that little girl? Was she maybe someone he knew when he was younger? Not to mention the memory only surfaced when he made eye contact with th-

"Although I'm not really surprised that you _did_ faint, making eye contact with a girl as pretty as Akame."

Ryu was instantly jolted from his thoughts as he stared at Leone incredulously. Honestly, she thought he fainted from something like _that_?

Ryu then groaned, Tatsuki and Keigo were never going to let him hear the end of this. Not to mention Ichigo was going to use this excuse to up the difficulty in training from this point on.

"RYU!" All three inhabitants looked up as a petite raven-haired girl sprinted into the room. "Good, you're up, now come on!"

Leone raised an eyebrow at Rukia before Ryu was dragged into the hallway, then her eyes widened when she felt the air shift around her.

Instantly spinning around, Leone was met with the point of a curved sword.

"I had a feeling that you weren't an ordinary human, this only confirms it." Leone's eyes narrowed at the words of the orange haired teen. This isn't good, she knew that his brother was the Hakuryukou, but she didn't think he could use _swords_ as well.

"Tell your _boss_ that I'm not going to allow Ryu in any of your adventures."

Leone's lips thinned before the feeling vanished and Ichigo's swords dissipated, _'Projection magic?'_ Ichigo stuck his hands in his pockets before walking away.

' _This isn't good.'_ Leone thought to herself, _'I'll have to warn Akame about him.'_

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu's eyes narrowed as he surveyed his surroundings before sighing and resting his enormous sword on his shoulder. "Honestly, I go through all of this trouble changing into my shinigami form just to discover that there's no hollow?"

"Don't blame me!" Rukia screamed, both were completely oblivious to the rather large spirit cowering against the alleyway. "There _was_ a hollow! The diareishinki wouldn't go off if there wasn't one."

Ryu gave her a deadpan stare, "Then where is it?"

Rukia grumbled under her breath as her eyes met the earth. Both of their conversations were interrupted as the large spirit leapt from his position.

"WAH I was sho shcared!" The plump plus cried, "Thank you sho much I-URG!"

"Tell that to the man who saved you." Ryu spoke, jumping out of the way and allowing the spirit to fall on his face. "By the way, you wouldn't have seen the being that saved you by any chance?"

The spirit looked down, "I was sho shcared, I closhed my eyesh and cowered againsht the wall in fear." The plus admitted sheepishly.

Ryu sighed, "Well, might as well get on with the Konso."

"Konsho?" The spirit backpedaled as Ryu drew his sword and raised it, "You gonna shtab me with that shword?! No shtay back!"

The spirit cried out as Ryu placed the hilt of the sword on his forehead and he fell into the earth with a flash of blue light Ryu sighed yet again as he saw a Jigokucho guide the floating soul to the soul society. "I really don't have time for this." He muttered, "Exams are coming up and I'd rather have my record free of any additional absences."

Rukia huffed and prepared to tell him they were in the same boat before Ryu raised his weapon in front of him and glanced around wildly.

"Wha-"

"Sh!"

Ryu's eyes narrowed, "Whoever's hiding, come on out!"

Several seconds passed before footsteps sounded throughout the quiet alleyway, revealing a teenager with black hair and bright blue eyes wearing a white tunic and dress pants, a pair of white shoes with blue crosses covering his feet, a pair of glasses resting on his nose.

"I'm surprised you could sense me, Kurosaki." The teen said, "I thought your ability to sense reiatsu was as bad as your brother's."

Ryu's eyes narrowed, "How do you know Ichigo."

"I won't deem that with an answer, but shouldn't you be going?" Ryu raised an eyebrow at the stranger's words. "Can't you sense it? You could sense me after all."

Ryu's eyes widened as a series of goosebumps ran down his neck. There was something… sinister off in the distance. It was something wild and filled with the intent to consume, to relentlessly feed until everything around it was gone.

"It seems as though you can sense the reiatsu of that hollow." As soon as the stranger spoke Rukia's daireishinki gave several high-pitched beeps.

"Ryu ther-"

"I know."

Rukia's eyes widened, Ryu was horrible at sensing reiatsu when they had first met, now he could sense a hollow at least a kilometer away? She knew about the training with Ichigo to improve his control with his own reiatsu, but did that mean that Ryu sensed it instinctively?

"You aren't going to do anything to stop us?" Ryu asked.

In response the teen raised his right arm, revealing a loose bracelet and an elaborate cross was wrapped around his left wrist.

' _Could this guy be and exorcist?'_ Ryu couldn't be entirely sure about the meaning behind the cross, but what the teen did next dissuaded any thoughts about the teen being with the church.

The cross-lit up in a flash of blue light before extending outward and curving into the shape of a crude recurve bow. It was seemingly translucent and seemed to be _made_ of reiatsu. Ryu's eyes narrowed as the boy pulled back on the string and released the arrow in the direction he sensed the hollow.

Instantly the feeling vanished, completely. Ryu's eyes widened at the strange feeling, it wasn't anything at all like when he cut hollows with his zanpakuto, there was a small presence even after they faded away. But with that arrow, nothing remained of that hollow.

"Who are you?" Ryu's eyes narrowed as he gripped his sword tightly.

"Ishida Uryu." The teen adjusted his glasses "Quincy, and.." The teen looked up, revealing cool blue eyes that reflected a calm fury,

" _I hate Shinigami."_

 **AN: So there isn't much to say about this chapter other than the fact that our favorite Quincy was introduced, sorry for the lack of conflict if you wanted to see it.**

 **And to those that are asking yourselves if Akame and Leone are** _ **the**_ **Akame and Leone from Akame ga kill! Let me confirm that the two are Akame and Leone from Akame ga Kill! With minor differences. You might see some other characters as well.**

 **Please leave a Review and tell me what you thought about this chapter, like what you liked and what you think I could improve on. If you like this story than be sure to follow it so that you know when new chapters are going to be released. And if you like it quite a lot than please favorite it, it would mean a lot to me to know that my readers actually like the story.**


	8. Chapter 8: Flowers and Fallen

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Highschool DxD I only own my OC**

"FINALLY DONE!"

Ryu glanced to the side at hearing the sound of Keigo's relieved shouting.

"And I'm dead…"

Mizuiro gave a small chuckle as he glanced at Keigo's paper, "Looks like crap, well I'm no better."

Ryu glanced up as his twin began to speak. Before he leaned back and closing his eyes. "Don't worry too much about exams. They don't matter all that much in life anyway." Keigo instantly shot up and wrapped his arm around Ichigo's shoulders. The elder twin gave a disapproving scowl that the brunette took no notice to.

"Maybe you and I are going to get along a lot better than I thought before! Ichigo-san!"

Ichigo responded by slamming his elbow directly into Keigo's stomach and the brunette instantly lurched forward and began breathing heavily.

"Don't touch me."

Mizuiro gave a pleasent chuckle at the antics of his friends before glancing to the downed Keigo. "I'm not sure about Kurosaki-san's policies. But I heard a few rumors that he was at the top of his class in an Italian private school."

Keigo instantly jumped up before shooting his head at the black/red haired teen that was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. "Ryu, how dare you!" At hearing the brunette's voice, Ryu opened his eyes and glanced at Keigo lazily. "Why didn't you tell us your brother was such a huge _nerd_?!" Ryu's eyes narrowed as Keigo walked up and shoved his face directly into Ryu's while wearing a pair of square shaped glasses. "For you and your brother I give these nerdy glasses."

In response, Ryu punched Keigo directly in the forehead. "Don't want them."

Keigo instantly ran and latched on to Mizuiro. Wailing about how their best friend was bullying him. Ryu tuned him out as he glanced to the front of the classroom, the man that introduced himself yesterday was sitting right in the front row.

Ryu's eyes narrowed as Ishida Uryu turned and gave him a small knowing smirk. Letting out the equivalent of an arm flex of reiatsu.

Ryu was so focused glaring at the teen that he didn't notice two individuals glance up at the slight increase of reiatsu from the quincy.

' _Oh come on!'_ Leone mentally groaned, _'Just how many spiritually aware humans are in this damn school?!'_

Akame however, had her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the one the Quincy was smirking at.

' _Does the Quincy have some form of relationship with him?'_ She wondered, _'No, that can't be it. I never saw them together. Enemies perhaps? Or maybe just a rivalry?'_

Akame couldn't be sure, but whatever it was, should the Quincy become an enemy, he would become a target.

And targets needed to be eliminated.

 **-XXXX-**

Ryu watched carefully as the Quincy in his class trekked his way toward whatever home he lived in. The glasses-wearing boy was walking in a manner that suggested confidence, yet caution simultaneously.

The one following him had made sure that he wasn't seen, but that seemed to have little effect as the Quincy turned around and spoke.

"You can come out now, Kurosaki."

Ryu sighed before moving out from his hiding place. "How long did you know I was following you?"

Ishida closed his eyes and adjusted his glasses. "Since we left the school, for all your skill in sensing reiatsu, you should really put some effort into controlling your own."

Ryu scowled at discovering that he'd been found out so easily. Ichigo _did_ tell him that he needed to learn to control his reiatsu, but he didn't think he was _that_ bad.

"At any rate…" Ryu looked up as the Quincy continued; "Since you're here I might as well begin this now."

Ryu's eyes narrowed as Ishida took out a small silver disc, "I challenge you, Kurosaki Ryu, to a battle."

Said substitute raised an eyebrow at the Quincy's tone, "Might I ask why you're challenging me in the first place?"

"Simple, my reasoning is to prove that shinigami, such as yourself and Kuchiki-san, are not necessary." Ryu's eyes narrowed at the arrogance in the Quincy's voice, "This is how the battle will work, what I have in my hand is hollow bait. When I crush this, hollows will come flocking to this area in a rapid fashion. Whoever kills more hollows in the end, is the victor."

"Forget it." Ryu said, closing his eyes and turning around. "I'm not going to participate in something that'll put innocent lives at risk."

"Hoh?" Ishida smirked, "It seems that due to your status as a substitute shinigami you can't do anything without Kuchiki-san's clearance. Nothing more than a dog on a leash."

Ryu halted and scowled as he stared at the ground. He knew what the Quincy was doing, playing on his pride to get him to accept. He wanted to, oh he wanted to accept oh so bad so he could make Ishida eat those words. But that protective instinct that he had inspired from his brother remained, giving hesitance to the desire to fight the Quincy.

Then, all of that faded into the background, as time seemed to slow to a near halt. A sharp pain shot through Ryu's head like the arrow that Ishida used to kill the hollow, a high pitched ringing sound piercing through his ears as he clutched his forehead.

An image of a blond haired man with slight amounts of facial hair on his chin appeared in the front of Ryu's mind. The man scowled as he opened his mouth to speak.

" _Why do you swing your sword like that? Pride? What a useless reason to swing a blade. Pride is an illusion that people use to justify killing. Pride is a word used by the weak, people who cannot shoulder the burden of taking a life, thus they place it on their 'pride'. We are not weak. We will shoulder the burden of the deaths we cause ourselves. That is our duty as-"_

The image instantly stopped and Ryu was jolted back to reality. The hesitance faded along with the desire to fight the Quincy.

"Trying to play on an illusion, Quincy?" Ryu turned slowly and Ishida's eyes narrowed as he noticed a change in the substitute standing in front of him, "What a useless attempt. I have no need for a thing like pride, something that the weak use. I fight for purpose, not for pride."

Ryu turned back around as he sensed Ishida's reiatsu spike in what appeared to be irritation. He didn't pay it any mind until the Quincy began to speak.

"It seems I'll be proving two things today then." Ryu stopped as he turned around with narrowed eyes, "I'll be proving that shinigami are unnecessary, and I'll be proving that the pride of the Quincy will easily defeat you."

And with that, Ishida crushed the small disk. Ryu instantly felt emotion return as indignation surged through him. He began to step towards Ishida before he lurched forward when something made contact with the back of his head. Ryu, now in shinigami form turned to see a black arrow with a cylinder in place of an arrowhead. On the front face was the same symbol that was on the back of Rukia's Gokon Tekko.

"Get going!" Ryu turned to see his elder twin in an exorcist's uniform holding an elaborate black recurve bow. "You don't have time to waste on him! All you need to focus on now is protecting the civilians."

"Oh, and I should mention." Ryu turned back to Ishida with a scowl etched into his face. "Hollows are attracted to high amounts of spiritual power. Therefore, they will go after those that posses such power."

Ryu's eyes widened in realization, "Yuzu and Karin!"

Ichigo scowled as he began to sense Hollows flooding locations all over Karakura already. With little hesitation he summoned his wings and leapt into the air. "I'll protect the girls, you focus on killing as many Hollows as you can!"

Ryu nodded as he turned and drew his Zanpakuto. Hollows appeared behind him already. Following Ichigo's training he charged and swung upwards cutting open the mask of one, before he swung horizontally to cut another.

Ishida on the other hand stayed where he was as each arrow he loosed hit its mark. Each hollow that made contact vanished instantaneously. The archer almost snorted at how fast the spirits dropped, almost like flies.

Both were so caught up in their slaying of Hollows that they didn't notice the two transfers that watched them from the bushes.

"That Quincy's too much trouble than he's worth." Leone said as she prepared to engage while Ishida remained occupied with Hollows when her companion placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Not now, he hasn't attacked Taicho." Akame said, "If he attacks, then he will be eliminated."

Leone sighed and nodded as they watched Ryu and Ishida dispatch the Hollows around them and they moved on to different locations. Both of them stood from their hiding place as Leone stretched and pulled a few stray leaves out of her hair. "We should move too, if the Hollows continue their swarm, there won't be much of Karakura Town left."

Akame nodded as a ripping sound came from the back of her uniform, revealing a pair of raven black wings stretched from her now exposed upper back. A mighty flap and she took off, soaring away.

"Showoff." Leone muttered as she took off in the opposite direction. All the while muttering about lucky Fallen and their wings.

 **-XXXX-**

Orihime felt dread seep into her heart and stomach as she began to realize the hopelessness of her situation.

It had started out normal enough; she had gone to see Tatsuki-chan. The ditzy auburn haired girl was completely unaware of the fact that Honsho-chan had followed her and interrupted their conversation. It was then that Orihime noticed the large monster on the roof of the school building.

It looked like an upside-down octopus with a lot more tentacles and a flat white face. Orihime didn't know what it was exactly, but she got a strange feeling whenever she saw it. Like the monster looked...familiar.

Orihime quickly broke up their fight and tried to push them away from the monster when it called out to her and tried to attack.

Then Tatsuki-chan jumped in front of her and repelled the monsters tentacles. Saying that she'd always protect her, Orihime felt tears well up before Tatsuki-chan was hit by what looked to be a bullet.

The monster revealed that it could control whatever its bullets hit and just to prove it. The monster shot Honsho-san as well.

This was what Orihime saw, Tatsuki-chan and Honsho-san coming to attack her as she sat pinned against a wall. She started to shake and her eyes widened, with no one else to turn to she began to plead for the man that saved her to arrive.

' _Ryu-kun…'_ She thought, and then her head was hit by a high-pitched ringing. An image flickered into her mind. One of Ryu-kun holding a large sword and a strange black outfit holding back the claw of a white masked monster.

' _Onii-chan… Ryu-kun.'_ Orihime felt the emotions rush back alongside the memory, the overwhelming fear she felt when Sora loomed over her, the relief that she felt when Ryu-kun had come to save her, and finally, the grief that she felt when she saw her brother kill himself.

Then she was jolted back to reality as Tatsuki-chan lashed out with a fist, Orihime jolted to the side as she made eye contact with Tatsuki. The auburn haired girl felt worry well up within her as she noticed tears streaking down her best friends face.

' _Tatsuki-chan…'_ Orihime's mind began to wander again as she thought of all the times that she'd been bullied due to her desire to keep her hair long. She had always thought she'd been alone until Tatsuki-chan became her friend.

" _What's with that hair?"_

" _What a showoff."_

" _Why don't we cut it for you?"_

"You've always protected me, Tatsuki-chan." Orihime smiled as she began to stand up, "You and Ryu-kun are the reasons that I was able to grow my hair long again." She wrapped her arms around her best friend as she began to feel something stir deep within her body. "So that's why… _don't cry, Tatsuki-chan_."

"Ori...hime…" Tatsuki struggled to croak out she continued to hold on to her.

" **Did you forget, girly?"** The monster sneered, **"Your friend belongs to me now!"**

The monster was cut off when a surge of Reiatsu flowed from Orihime's body, surrounding both her and Tatsuki in a whirling vortex of air.

" **Wh-What the hell?"** The monster said out of pure shock.

"You said that Tatsuki-chan belongs to you…" Orihime said as the vortex cleared, revealing that she was completely unharmed, "Tatsuki-chan belongs to no one! Anyone that hurts her, answers directly to me!"

" **What are you? Using such strange powers…"**

Orihime's face remained stoic before her expression gave way to confusion as she noticed several small objects flying around her in a strange fashion.

" _Stupid girl, she didn't notice us?"_

" _No, she noticed, after all, we've always been here."_

Orihime's eyes widened when a small green, plane-like object landed on her shoulder before it seemed to unfold into a small boy with a blonde topknot.

" _Hello Orihime, we are the Shun Shun Rikka. We were created to protect you. We're your power."_

Orihime felt surprise as she stared at the small fairy like beings that floated around her.

"Whoa!" Her eyes widened as she pointed directly at the one that rested on her shoulder. "A flying midget is talking to me!"

" _Good reaction!"_ The boy said, _"But allow me to correct you, we're not 'flying midgets' we're your power! In other words, we are yourself!"_

Orihime's eyes widened before she grabbed the boy right out of the air. _"Owowow! Don't try and catch me because you didn't understand my explanation, besides only you can see us!"_

"Really?"

" _Really!"_ The boy said with exasperation evident in his tone, _"At most, Kurosaki Ryu, his twin and people like them would be able to see us."_

"Ryu-kun? What does he have to do with this?"

" _You should know, after all… We were born due to him."_

Before Orihime could enquire as to what he meant, the spirit in her hands was sent flying due to another one kicking him from behind.

" _This isn't time for easygoing introductions you damn top knotted captain!"_

" _Ow.. That hurt Tsubaki!"_

" _Of course, that was a powerful kick!"_

The black clothed spirit turned to Orihime, _"Hey, woman! You don't need to know what we are or where we came from! All you need to know is how to handle us… THAT'S ALL!"_

"How to handle..?"

" _Yeah!"_

Two more then spoke up, _"Our power is to create a shield and repel it!"_

" _What we need to invoke that is your mind and incantation."_

"Incantation?"

" _Oi, it's coming."_ Tsubaki muttered.

" **What are you doing… Little girl!"**

" _Orihime! You need to call out our names, I'm Hinagiku!"_

" _I'm Baigon!"_

" _I'm Lily!"_

The blonde one turned to Orihime, _"Repeat after me, Hinagiku, Baigon, Lily!"_

"Hinagiku, Baigon, Lily!"

" _Santen Kesshun!"_

"I reject!"

Instantly a triangle shaped shield appeared and blocked the projectiles that the monster shot out. Orihime was shocked into silence at the appearance of the defense in front of her.

" _Whew, we made it."_ Lily spoke in relief.

" _Our power is repelling the 'outer shield' making a defensive wall."_ Hinagiku explained, only further confusing Orihime.

" _Now then,"_ Orihime turned back to the blonde as he began to speak again. _"Why don't we get your friend healed up?"_

"You can do that?"

The blonde nodded as another fairy flew up next to him, _"My name's Ayame,"_

" _And I'm Shun'o. Our power is to repel the 'inner shield' and restore it to its original state. To invoke this, repeat after me, Sōten Kissun."_

"I reject."

Shun'o and Ayame instantly created a dome of orange energy over Tatsuki and her wounds were healed. Her uniform was also repaired.

Orihime stood in awe of the restored form of her best friend. Before she was jolted from her thoughts by an angry black-colored fairy.

" _No time for daydreaming, Woman!"_ Tsubaki roared as he kicked the side of her head, _"That thing's still coming up on us! You need to use my power!"_ Orihime looked up to see the monster repeatedly bashing against the shield that Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily created, several cracks already appearing on its orange surface. _"My power is to place a shield inside the enemy and repel both sides! Splitting them apart! To use this, call out my name, then say Koten Zanshun!"_

"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun, I reject!"

Said spirit responded by surrounding himself in an orange aura and charging forward, zooming around the Santen Kesshun and directly into the monster on the other side of it. A large beam of orange light appeared the instant Tsubaki made contact with the white face of the monster and split it in half. The monster faded away, falling to dust.

Orihime sighed in relief as the Santen Kesshun faded away, Hinagiku Baigon and Lily returning to her after it fell.

" _Well, that was close."_ Hinagiku said with a sigh of relief.

" _Yeah, I can only wonder what would've happened to Orihime if we weren't there in time."_ Shun'o agreed, flying over along with Ayame after Tatsuki was finished healing.

" _Don't let your guard down so quickly…"_ Tsubaki muttered while looking upward.

" _Eh? What do you mean, Tsubaki?"_ Ayame asked while tilting her head.

" _Don't you see it? Above us."_

Orihime and the spirits of the Shun Shun Rikka looked up, only to feel shock running through them. Standing at the top of the building, was a young woman with long black hair. She was wearing the Karakura High uniform with the addition of red leather gauntlets and was holding a sheathed Katana in her left hand. But the most defining feature about her, were her bright red eyes that seemed to take in all of her surroundings, and the large, black, angel wings that extended from behind her. Orihime then recognized her as the transfer student that had come into her class.

Several moments passed, with the two parties merely staring at one another before Tsubaki felt his impatience rear its ugly head.

" _Oi! Woman! You just gonna stand there and stare at us all day?!"_

" _Tsubaki."_ Shun'o said, the effeminate spirit turned towards the only offensive member of the Shun Shun Rikka with a small smile on his face. _"You wouldn't want to anger a person that we've only just met, would you?"_ A large Oni-mask appeared behind him as he spoke.

Tsubaki paled as he instantly turned away, _"N-no…"_

' _Scary!'_ Was the general thought of the others in the party, Shun'o merely continued to smile before a finger poked the mask behind him.

The entire party stood in shock of the woman that appeared behind them in mere moments. Every spirit of the Shun Shun Rikka preparing to protect their master every way they knew how. While the woman that poked Shun'o's Oni mask turned around with an inquisitive look on her face.

"How did you use this?" She asked.

" _Hm?"_ Shun'o raised an eyebrow in confusion, _"Nee-san taught it to me."_

The girl nodded before turning back around and continuing to study the mask, remembering all of the times that Taicho had used it against them. She shuddered involuntarily, while not as scary as Taicho's, it was still very jarring, especially the feeling of nostalgia as she stared at it.

' _Wait…'_ Orihime thought as she realized something, something that she'd forgotten with the appearance of the Oni mask behind Shun'o.

"How can you see them?" She asked the girl in front of her, said girl turned around and regarded Orihime for a few moments before the girl's eyes narrowed and she vanished.

Orihime closed her eyes and the Shun Shun Rikka jumped in front of her before she realized that no blow had come. She turned around and saw the black haired girl with her katana drawn and cutting through the mask of one of the masked monsters.

"Eliminate." The single word was akin to a whisper on the wind as the monster faded away from reality, crumbling to dust. The ice in her voice caused the others present and conscious to involuntarily shiver, much more so when the girl turned around and narrowed her eyes before Orihime fell unconscious with the Shun Shun Rikka returning to their hairpin stares.

 **AN: I return with a cliffhanger, pretty assholeish right?**

 **Seems like Akame encountered Orihime who** _ **finally**_ **unlocked her powers. You probably noticed that Shun'o actually has the ability to reign in Tsubaki. Don't expect to see it often though; I just wanted a reason for Tsubaki to call Shun'o 'captain'.**

 **Also, Orihime is going to have a bigger role other than just** _ **healer**_ **as I thought that she could use a bit of a buff anyway.**

 **Please leave a Review and tell me what you thought about this chapter, like what you liked and what you think I could improve on. If you like this story than be sure to follow it so that you know when new chapters are going to be released. And if you like it quite a lot then please favorite it, it would mean a lot to me to know that my readers actually like the story.**


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